"Compassion"
a condensed version of the sermon delivered by Gail Wiley on Sunday, June 10, 2007 at Union Congregational Church in Somonauk, Illinois.

Compassion is, I think, one of the purest emotions we have. It is when we are no longer thinking about anything but how someone else feels or what someone else thinks. It is when we put away all of our own concerns and problems for the moment and care only for another. Compassion is not charity but rather what compels us to a charitable act.

In our scripture we are shown glimpses of people showing compassion for one another and then taking action on it. Elijah and the widow showed compassion for each other. She fed and took care of him even though she didn’t seem to have enough and Elijah asked God to bring her back her son. Jesus while traveling happens upon a woman getting ready to bury her son. In her grief, Jesus takes pity on her and with compassion, gives her back her son. Now granted, these are pretty extreme cases. One of us probably couldn’t do that. "Ok, there ya go, not dead anymore. Feel better now?" I’m thinking, not gonna happen. But there are things we can do for someone who is grieving.

The opposite of compassion is selfishness. It is what gets in the way and blocks our empathy for the people around us. It happens, its human nature. You’ve had a hard day, you’re dog tired, nothing is going right and you see a homeless person on the corner shaking a cup of coins. When we are blocked by our own problems, our first impulse might be to tell the guy to get a job. "Hey dude, if you can stand there all day and shake a cup, you can serve French fries. I’m working and getting my butt kicked, why can’t you?" It happens, our eyes are blinded by our own problems and we are not seeing his. We lead complicated and sometimes frustrating lives and it is so easy to sometimes not see what is going on around us. When watching the news sometimes, I wonder if there is any compassion left in the world. We have pointless wars, hate crimes, battered spouses, abused and missing children and politicians who seem to forget just who they are working for. We are lied to, pandered and manipulated and treated like stupid children by people who are suppose to know better. I watch the news sometimes and think "What’s the point? No one cares about us anymore."

Well the point is the news only tells part of the story. Let me give you some examples of real compassion:

After Katrina hit, I was talking to a woman on line whose husband owned a trucking company. Her husband filled his trucks with supplies and took them to help the victims. Literally thousands of people came from all over the country to do what ever they could to help relieve the devastation. Companies gave clothing and supplies, builders donated there time and skills, doctors and nurses treated the sick. The whole country came together in one huge act of compassion to alive the devastation.

That was a grand act of compassion but just as important are the small ones. Franco Sisti, Woody’s grandfather, worked in a job he hated. He would come home tired and broken down but nobody knew. Woody caught him one day coming home from work tired and broken. Before he came to the house, Franco stopped, straightened himself out, took a deep breath and put a smile on his face and went into the house. He would rather suffer in silence than let his family know how he felt. What he was doing was for them and he didn’t want them to feel any guilt or remorse about it. When someone was hungry, he would quietly bring them food or what ever they needed and it would be there secret.

Compassion can be a simple reassurance. I worked yesterday as backup shooter for a wedding. While I was getting shots of the bride getting ready, she was stressing out and started wondering if she was to tan. She was asking her brides maids if she needed more makeup and starting to panic. I simply looked at her straight in the eye and very honestly told her that she looked perfect. She took a breath, her shoulders came down and she relaxed.

Compassion is a child sharing his or her candy with another kid so they won’t feel left out. Compassion is bringing a meal to a shut in or giving someone your seat on the bus. Compassion is taking the time to understand why that guy ticking you off at work is acting like he is before you get outraged and complain about his behavior. That is a hard one to do believe me…… Been there, done that. Compassion is caring for someone who is broken and hurt. Compassion is NOT telling him the person you just worked for looks a lot like George Clooney.

Compassion is feeding the hungry. How many of you have gardens? How many of you plant too much? In our last Deacons meeting, we discussed a possible mission. What we proposed to do is to take the abundance of our gardens and bring the extra veggies here to the church on Wednesdays to be picked up and taken to Our Sharing Pantry for distribution. This way, people who really need the food can have access to healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables and we are not letting good food go to waste. We felt that this would complement the wonderful work of the Food Resource Bank. While our farmers are donating space in there fields to feed the world, we individuals can donates a row or two of our own gardens to feed the hungry right here. By the way my garden is looking; they will have plenty of tomatoes. You will find an article about this in your next newsletter. This is a simple thing for us but it is huge to a person who is hungry and can’t afford to buy food.

Right here is where compassion starts and I got to tell ya, we have a huge head start here. This is one extremely compassionate congregation. I see all of you giving of your time, your talent, your skills and your hearts all the time. Really, I didn’t need to do all this talking. All I needed to do was stand here and do this. The really good news is that no matter what we do, Jesus has an abundance of compassion for us. So much so that he sacrificed his own body to save us. No matter what we do he loves us. No matter where we go, he sees our hearts. He will never turn us away or stop feeling our pain. His compassion for us is greater than anything we will ever know. It is great enough to bring us to him when our time on this earth is finished and give us eternal life. What more can we ask for.

So your mission should you choose to accept it is this. Every day, make an effort to consider someone else. Try and understand what they are going through. Even if you don’t take an action, just let yourself see things from their perspective. Remember, peace is born of understanding, understanding is born of compassion. Compassion is born of God. We are God’s children. Our mission is to share his compassion for us with each other.

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