Nancy Ferree-Clark - "The Compassion of Christ" (June 4, 1989)

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Speaker	A reading from the gospel	0:04
	according to St. Luke	0:06
	Soon afterward Jesus went to a city called Nain,	0:08
	and his disciples and a great crowd	0:13
	went with him.	0:15
	As he drew near to the gate of the city	0:17
	behold, a man who had died was being carried out.	0:20
	The only son of his mother	0:24
	and she was a widow.	0:26
	And the large crowd from the city	0:28
	was with her.	0:30
	And when the Lord saw her	0:33
	he had compassion on her	0:34
	and said to her,	0:37
	"Do not weep."	0:39
	And he came and touched the bier	0:41
	and the bearers stood still.	0:43
	And he said,	0:46
	"Young man, I say to you, arise."	0:47
	And the dead man sat up	0:52
	and began to speak,	0:54
	and he gave him to his mother.	0:56
	Fear seized them all	0:59
	and they glorified God saying,	1:01
	"A great prophet has risen among us!"	1:04
	and "God has visited his people!"	1:07
	And this report concerning him	1:11
	spread through the whole of Judea	1:13
	and all the surrounding country.	1:15
	This is the word of the Lord.	1:19
	There is a story in Buddhist tradition	1:27
	about a meeting that is suppose to have	1:31
	taken place one day between	1:33
	the Buddha himself	1:34
	and an odd little creature,	1:36
	known as the Monkey God.	1:38
	After the fashion of most monkeys,	1:42
	he was apparently impudent, ingenuous	1:44
	and rather ludicrous	1:47
	but above all he was very vain	1:49
	and very boastful.	1:51
	These qualities become apparent	1:53
	as soon as he and the Buddha	1:55
	came face to face	1:57
	because the very first thing	1:58
	he tries to do,	2:00
	is to prove that he,	2:02
	the Monkey God is just as powerful	2:03
	as the great Buddha himself	2:06
	if not indeed more so.	2:08
	In order to demonstrate this,	2:11
	he sets about performing a number of	2:13
	rather astonishing tricks.	2:14
	The kind you might expect from a monkey	2:17
	under the circumstances.	2:19
	And all the while he's performing them,	2:21
	the Buddha sits there	2:23
	politely attentive	2:25
	but giving no particular sign	2:27
	of being impressed.	2:29
	Finally,	2:31
	when he's plainly at his wits end,	2:32
	the Monkey God pulls out his best act.	2:34
	Which consists of taking one	2:37
	enormously leap into the air	2:39
	and disappearing from sight completely.	2:41
	He is gone for 5 minutes	2:43
	or 5 centuries,	2:45
	no one seems to know for sure.	2:47
	But eventually he comes back	2:49
	and stands around,	2:51
	waiting for the Buddha	2:53
	to ask him about his venture.	2:54
	But the Buddha says nothing at all.	2:56
	The Monkey God can't stand	2:59
	the silence any longer	3:01
	so he tells him anyway,	3:02
	explaining that he's just come back	3:03
	from the outer most limits of the Universe.	3:06
	And that perhaps,	3:08
	this is a journey that even the Buddha	3:09
	might find reason to admire.	3:12
	Then he stands around for a little while longer,	3:15
	hoping that this time	3:17
	the Buddha will ask him	3:18
	what he saw there.	3:20
	Again, there is no sound	3:21
	except for the sound	3:24
	of his own heart pounding.	3:25
	And again, he is forced to answer	3:27
	the question that has not been asked.	3:29
	He explains in detail how	3:33
	when he reached	3:35
	the outer most limits of the Universe,	3:36
	he saw there	3:38
	5 huge granite pillars,	3:39
	which extended up and up and up	3:42
	until the tops of them	3:44
	were lost in the clouds.	3:45
	And what does the Buddha think of that	3:48
	he asks,	3:50
	looking up into the Buddhas great	3:50
	silent face.	3:53
	And this time the Buddha does answer	3:55
	but not in words.	3:57
	Instead of saying anything,	4:00
	the Buddha simply raises his hand	4:02
	and holds it up there	4:05
	before the Monkey God's eyes.	4:07
	As the Monkey God looks at it,	4:10
	his attention is drawn to the Buddhas fingers	4:11
	and as he gazes at them,	4:14
	he sees them not as fingers	4:16
	but as 5 huge granite pillars	4:19
	which extend up and up and up	4:22
	until the tops of them	4:25
	are lost in the clouds.	4:26
	I'm grateful to Frederick Bikaner	4:31
	for recounting this story	4:33
	in one of his sermons.	4:34
	For it seems to me	4:36
	to exemplify one of the great dilemmas	4:38
	that we face in the church.	4:40
	We preachers can spend inordinate	4:43
	amounts of energy	4:46
	doing all sorts of verbal contortions	4:47
	in an attempt to describe God.	4:50
	When what we really need to do	4:53
	is to point toward the reality	4:55
	of God's presence in your life	4:56
	and mine.	4:58
	Words were invented to deal	5:00
	with the world of time and space.	5:01
	Where as by definition,	5:03
	God exists beyond	5:05
	such categories all together.	5:06
	And so,	5:09
	in our attempt to talk about God	5:10
	we sometimes mix up the truth	5:12
	about the reality of God's presence.	5:15
	With their own notions	5:18
	of what it is that God ought to be about.	5:19
	This is especially the case	5:22
	when we bump up against	5:24
	some part of God's character	5:25
	that seems especially difficult	5:27
	to understand.	5:28
	For an instance,	5:30
	you may have heard someone proclaim that	5:31
	"God helps those who help themselves."	5:33
	Perhaps you, yourself have vouch	5:37
	for the truth of this statement,	5:39
	declaring that the bible tells you so.	5:40
	But in fact,	5:43
	the bible says something quite the opposite.	5:45
	Namely, that God raises the poor	5:48
	from the dust	5:50
	and lifts the needy from the ash heap,	5:52
	making them sit with nobles,	5:55
	as we read in today's Psalm.	5:57
	As the bible tells it,	6:00
	God is a compassionate God	6:01
	who helps those	6:03
	who either can't help themselves	6:04
	or for whatever reason	6:06
	have chosen not to do so.	6:07
	This became perfectly clear	6:10
	in God's self revelation	6:12
	through Jesus Christ.	6:13
	The tough thing though	6:15
	is that even when we say that,	6:16
	we haven't grasp	6:18
	the full meaning of this reality.	6:19
	For words can not contain it.	6:22
	Only by pointing to the experience	6:25
	of another	6:27
	and hopefully,	6:28
	someday having that experience	6:29
	for ourselves	6:31
	do we begin to know	6:32
	the full measure of God's mercy.	6:34
	Seen in that light	6:37
	our gospel lesson provides us	6:38
	with the powerful revelation	6:41
	of God's character.	6:43
	Which is easier to point to	6:44
	than to describe.	6:46
	There we find Jesus	6:49
	and his disciples	6:50
	as they draw near to the gate	6:51
	of the city of Nain,	6:53
	where they meet a funeral procession.	6:55
	Which was leaving the city	6:57
	to bury a dead man.	6:58
	The man who had died	7:01
	was the only son of his mother.	7:02
	They soon learned	7:04
	and she was a widow.	7:05
	Undoubtedly,	7:08
	hers is a hard life already.	7:09
	Due to the inferior position	7:11
	granted to widows	7:13
	in those days.	7:14
	In Hebrew law,	7:16
	she had absolutely no rights	7:17
	of inheritance.	7:19
	This strange neglect	7:22
	may have been due to the fact	7:23
	that the Hebrews believed	7:24
	that death before old age	7:25
	was a judgment for sin.	7:28
	Which was extended to the wife	7:30
	that was left.	7:32
	Widow in Hebrew,	7:34
	resembles the word	7:36
	meaning "be mute".	7:37
	Suggesting the muteness	7:39
	induced by a so called	7:40
	"disgraceful widowhood".	7:41
	In the case of this particular widow,	7:45
	her plight was even more tragic	7:46
	as this was her only son who had died.	7:49
	Bereft of both men in her life,	7:52
	she is without identity,	7:55
	security
	or companionship.	7:58
	Thus Jesus looked upon her	8:01
	and all of her sadness,	8:03
	her despair, her hopelessness	8:04
	and was moved to have	8:07
	compassion on her.	8:09
	This may sound like a common response to us.	8:11
	Wouldn't any of us be moved to compassion?	8:14
	But a careful look at this text	8:18
	reveals the depth	8:20
	of this divine compassion.	8:21
	The Greek word for compassion	8:24
	used only in reference to Jesus	8:26
	or the Father,	8:28
	refers to the entrails of the body	8:29
	or as we might say the guts.	8:32
	When we say Jesus was moved	8:36
	to feel compassion for this widow,	8:38
	in his gut,	8:40
	this is obviously	8:42
	something quite different	8:43
	from passing feelings of sorrow	8:44
	or of sympathy.	8:46
	Rather it extended	8:48
	to the most vulnerable part	8:49
	of his being.	8:51
	It is related to the Hebrew word	8:53
	for compassion,	8:55
	which refers to the womb of Yahweh.	8:56
	When Jesus was moved to compassion,	9:01
	we can say that the womb of Yahweh trembled.	9:03
	This word reminds us that	9:07
	the source of all life	9:09
	remains connected to the creation	9:10
	which he,	9:13
	perhaps better referred to	9:14
	as she, in this instance,	9:15
	gives birth to.	9:17
	Much like a mother	9:20
	as forever bonded to her child	9:21
	but even more so.	9:23
	As the prophet Isaiah writes,	9:25
	"Can a woman forget her sucking child,	9:27
	that she should have no compassion	9:30
	on the son of her womb?	9:31
	Even these may forget,	9:33
	yet I will not forget you.	9:35
	I have carved you on the palm of my hand."	9:38
	says the Lord.	9:41
	This depth of feeling	9:44
	was revealed time and time again	9:45
	in scriptures	9:47
	as Jesus ministered to his people	9:48
	when he saw the crowd harassed	9:50
	and dejected like sheep	9:52
	without a shepherd.	9:54
	When he saw the blind,	9:56
	the deaf,	9:57
	the paralyzed being brought to him.	9:58
	When he noticed	10:01
	that the thousands who followed him	10:02
	were tired and hungry.	10:03
	Through Christ, it became clear	10:07
	that God has established	10:09
	solidarity with us	10:10
	whatever our predicament.	10:12
	We know that God has embraced	10:14
	everything human	10:16
	with infinite tenderness	10:17
	including our pain and grief.	10:19
	Well, this is certainly all good to know about	10:23
	you may be thinking.	10:25
	But why all this emphasis on	10:26
	Christ suffering with us?	10:28
	The widow's son	10:31
	was brought back to life, wasn't he?	10:32
	Isn't it the cure that really counts?	10:34
	Isn't that that proof of God's love towards us?	10:37
	Beware the limitations	10:41
	such a pragmatic view imposes on this story.	10:43
	Yes, Jesus did bring new life	10:47
	to those he met	10:49
	but it was out of his great compassion	10:51
	that such feeling and healing emerged.	10:53
	He did not cure to prove	10:56
	or to impress	10:58
	or to convince.	11:00
	Jesus' cure was the natural expression	11:01
	of his being our God.	11:04
	We know too well	11:08
	how hollow a cure can seem	11:09
	when performed without compassion.	11:11
	We all know of men and women	11:14
	who could walk again,	11:15
	see again or speak again	11:17
	but whose hearts remained dark	11:19
	and embittered.	11:20
	A genuine cure occurs	11:22
	most readily in a genuinely caring	11:24
	atmosphere.	11:26
	Otherwise,	11:28
	the attempt to provide a cure	11:29
	degenerates into manipulation	11:31
	or condescension.	11:33
	And so the truly good news	11:36
	is that our God is not a distant God	11:37
	to be avoided or feared	11:40
	but one who freely participates	11:42
	in the fullness of human struggle.	11:44
	We're not alone in our pain and sorrow.	11:47
	God truly cares for us.	11:50
	Simple as that may sound,	11:55
	it remains difficult to comprehend.	11:56
	We live in a world	12:00
	where the concept of caring	12:01
	becomes more and more ambiguous	12:02
	it seems.	12:04
	Even our language	12:06
	reflects a certain ambivalence	12:07
	toward the word care.	12:09
	"I would take care of him."	12:11
	is just likely to imply	12:14
	a threat, as a promise to show compassion.	12:16
	"I don't care."	12:20
	is a common place response	12:21
	to many choices in life,	12:22
	not least among them being religion.	12:25
	A carefree lifestyle	12:28
	is more attractive to most	12:30
	than a careful one.	12:31
	Genuine care is not ambiguous however.	12:34
	Real care excludes a difference	12:38
	and is the opposite of apathy.	12:41
	The word "care" finds its roots	12:43
	in the Gothic word "lament".	12:45
	The basic meaning of care is therefore	12:48
	"to grieve",	12:50
	"to experience sorrow",	12:52
	"to cry out with".	12:53
	This is especially interesting	12:57
	when you consider	12:58
	that we most often interpret care	12:59
	as an attitude of the strong	13:01
	toward the weak	13:02
	or of the powerful toward the powerless.	13:04
	And in fact,	13:07
	we feel quite uncomfortable	13:08
	with the idea of being with someone	13:10
	in pain,	13:12
	when that's all that we can do.	13:14
	What was your reaction	13:17
	the last time someone asked you	13:18
	to visit a dying friend	13:20
	or a family in mourning?	13:22
	In a provocative article	13:26
	of Dr. Thomas Long	13:27
	of Princeton Theological Seminary,	13:29
	who is a favorite guest preacher of ours	13:31
	here at the chapel.	13:33
	He proposes that our death denying culture	13:34
	has found more and more and more ways	13:38
	to remove ourselves from a process	13:40
	of caring for one another	13:42
	in times of grief.	13:44
	He comments on the way	13:46
	that just a couple of generations ago	13:48
	in the rural south,	13:49
	the community played a much larger role	13:51
	in the period of time	13:54
	immediately following a death.	13:55
	Plates of food were brought	13:58
	to the bereaved family	13:59
	so many that they had to be identified	14:01
	by names written on pieces of	14:03
	little adhesive tapes	14:05
	stuck to the bottom of the plate.	14:06
	The women were charge	14:09
	with the responsibility	14:10
	of washing and preparing the body	14:11
	for burial	14:13
	and the men would make the coffin.	14:14
	Members of the family often with friends,	14:17
	would sit up with the body	14:19
	the night before the funeral.	14:21
	After the burial,	14:23
	there would be an extended season	14:24
	of memorializing,	14:26
	when family and friends would gather	14:27
	for visiting and storytelling.	14:30
	These days seems we do well	14:33
	to find the time to send	14:35
	a sympathy card.	14:36
	Or to take the day off work for the funeral.	14:47
	Thank goodness	14:50
	we have the option of paying	14:51
	for the funeral director	14:52
	to make the necessary arrangements.	14:54
	All the way from preparing the body	14:56
	to providing transportation,	14:58
	we can be sure he will offer it with a smile.	15:00
	But this seems somehow	15:04
	in marked contrast	15:06
	to the early Christian notion	15:08
	that the rituals surrounding	15:09
	the death of a Christian	15:10
	belongs specifically to their own community.	15:12
	Enabling them to care for one another	15:15
	in their time of need.	15:18
	Whereas the Romans	15:21
	avoided touching the body,	15:22
	Christians gave their dead	15:24
	the kiss of peace.	15:25
	Among the Romans,	15:27
	the task of laying out the body	15:28
	was a chore given to a slave.	15:30
	Among Christians,	15:32
	it was a work of love	15:34
	carried out by family and friends.	15:35
	The Romans process to the graveyard	15:39
	to the sound of trumpets and lutes.	15:40
	The Christians	15:43
	to the chanting of songs.	15:44
	An impoverished Roman	15:47
	who died was buried unceremonialy	15:48
	on a common burying ground.	15:50
	Christians raised endowments	15:53
	for the burial of their poor.	15:55
	There's a sense on which	15:58
	all of these actions	15:59
	constituted a frame work	16:00
	of caring within the Christian community.	16:02
	A liturgical act	16:05
	and the best sense of the word	16:06
	which enabled them to act out	16:08
	their beliefs.	16:11
	Don't worry, I'm not proposing	16:13
	that we even attempt to go back	16:15
	to building our own coffins	16:17
	or preparing the bodies ourselves for burial.	16:18
	That's not likely	16:22
	to be a very popular suggestion	16:22
	in anybodies church.	16:24
	I'm simply saying	16:27
	that the challenge we do face	16:28
	as a Christian community	16:30
	is how to reclaim the call of Christ.	16:32
	Being compassionate as your father	16:35
	is compassionate.	16:38
	When we know the depth of caring,	16:39
	those words require of us.	16:42
	In a world that computes time as money	16:45
	it seems to be coming increasingly difficult	16:48
	to give of our time to one another	16:51
	and therefore of ourselves.	16:53
	It seems so much easier	16:56
	simply to pay to have it done for us.	16:57
	Meanwhile,	17:01
	we forego much of the joy	17:02
	that true caring brings to living	17:04
	and that Christian community is all about.	17:06
	It was the bereaved widow's	17:12
	extremely good fortune	17:13
	that she should encountered Jesus	17:14
	just at the time	17:16
	she did outside the city gate.	17:17
	No amount of money	17:20
	could've paid for the care	17:21
	he was about to provide her.	17:22
	"Do not weep" he said.	17:25
	As he gave her	17:27
	one of the greatest gifts	17:28
	a person could ever hope to receive.	17:30
	The gift of unspeakable joy,	17:33
	which accompanies the return of life	17:35
	where there was death.	17:38
	We've been privileged to know that feeling too	17:41
	but perhaps,	17:43
	without realizing where it came from	17:44
	such as the time	17:47
	a love one suddenly recovers	17:48
	after a life threatening illness,	17:50
	such as when we experience forgiveness	17:53
	after being filled with fear	17:55
	and shame,	17:57
	such as when we find ourselves	17:59
	being cared for	18:01
	after feeling lost and alone	18:03
	or in the face of a devastating lost.	18:06
	It is as if God	18:09
	has held up before us	18:10
	not the hand of the Buddha	18:12
	but the figure of a man	18:14
	whose face is marred almost beyond recognition	18:16
	but who can still say to us,	18:20
	"Do not weep,	18:23
	these things	18:24
	have I done for you	18:26
	that my joy may be in you".	18:28
	Thanks be to God.	18:31

Item Info

Title:

Nancy Ferree-Clark - "The Compassion of Christ" (June 4, 1989)

Description:

Sermon start time: 01:27. Sermon end time: 18:34.
Just as God cares deeply for us and offers God's self to us, we should care and help others. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “In a world that computes time as money, it seems to become increasingly difficult to give of our time to one another and therefore of ourselves.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4pg1j29b

Date:

June 4, 1989

Speaker:

Ferree-Clark, Nancy

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Luke 7:11-17

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0437
ref8630_pln
uachapelsermaud
duke:320611
dcrau001366
ark:/87924/r4pg1j29b
84a295f6-18e9-4e83-b6f3-150bc9498848

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Nancy Ferree-Clark - "The Compassion of Christ" (June 4, 1989)

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