Compassion
Sermon Notes 18th June 2023
Desiree Snyman
A reflection on Matthew 9.35-10.10: noissim esreveR
One of God’s great apostles/disciples/saints is Teresa of Avila. One of the doctors of the church, Theresa has taught us much about our oneness with God. You may remember the story of when she was travelling by cart when one of the wheels was stuck and the cart tipped over spilling her into the mud. Covered in dirt, wet and cold Teresa complained to God “Why are you doing this to me?”. The Lord replied, “Teresa this is how I treat my friends.” Teresa answered, “Is it any wonder you have so few?”
The Gospel reading today is clearly about us, the apostles/disciples/saints of God. Like Teresa and the first 12 apostles, we too are friends of God participating in God’s mission. Like Teresa and the early apostles we are sent by Jesus as Jesus to live out the transformation that love brings about. Much like Teresa, we know that being sent by Jesus as Jesus won’t win us any awards. The reward for participating in God’s mission is humiliation, as Jesus himself explains in Matthew 10.24: “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!”
Jesus’ ministry of healing and preaching is a sign that God’s kingdom is now and in the world. The vision of the kingdom of God is a call for the personal and societal transformation that love achieves. God’s kingdom challenges Rome’s oppression with justice and Rome’s greed with freedom. In Matthew 9.35 “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.” Jesus’ ministry of teaching and healing is established as a pattern that the apostles imitate.
The ministry moves from the hands of Jesus into the hands of his 12 disciples. As Jesus teaches, preaches, and heals, now the disciples are sent in twos to teach, preach, and heal: ”As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment”.
Compassion
The pivot on which the ministry flows from Jesus through to the disciples is compassion (see Mat. 9.36). If the ministry of Jesus is one wheel and the ministry of the apostles is another wheel then the axle connecting the two wheels together is compassion: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9.36). The Greek for compassion is σπλαγχνίζομαι (splagchnizomai). An onomatopoetical word, splagchnizomai imitates the sound of gut movement. Compassion is the gut-wrenching response to corruption and the pain it causes community. The phrase “sheep without a shepherd” is borrowed from Ezekiel 34.5 and is a criticism and indictment on the political leadership. Instead of caring for people, Israel’s leaders were feeding off people – they were cannibals. Compassion is not an intellectual exercise but a movement of the gut, the intestines twist and knot together in response to suffering. In other words, our response to suffering and injustice is not a mechanical action, but an outworking of bodily emotion, of gut felt care and empathy expressed in concrete engagement. Mission without love is like trying to drive a car with wheels but no axle. Without that intense compassion and love our work fails to be God’s mission.
World Refugee Day
World Refugee Day is June 20. As a church we honour refugees on the closest Sunday, today on June 18. Refugee week has 3 intentions:
1. To honour those people who come to us as refugees, giving thanks for the skills, talents, and diversity they gift to us.
2. To lament the reason for forced displacement.
3. To encourage communities to receive people who are refugees with hospitality.
Who or what are refugees? People who are forced to leave their homes because of violence or persecution are described as refugees. The term refugee is an international, legal term that designates a crime against people. Refugee is not an identity; it is not who people are. Refugee is something that happens to people. Refugee is a status – not an identity.
Australia is a signatory to the UN convention and its 1967 protocol. As Australians it is useful to remember that:
· ‘Article 14: Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries, asylum from persecution.‘ (1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights).
· While it is usually illegal to enter a country without a valid visa, it is not to be considered as illegal if it is for the purpose of seeking asylum (‘Article 31: The Contracting States shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of Article 1, enter or are present in their territory without authorization, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence).
· People seeking protection must not be prevented from entering a UN Convention signatory country. They must not be returned to a country where their life or freedom is threatened. (The 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol, UNHCR)
· 92% of people arriving by boat since 2008 have been assessed to be genuine refugees, fleeing things like war, persecution, genocide, and torture. (Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Asylum Trends Australia, 2012-13 – Annual Publication, page 30)
· There’s no such thing as a queue. Anyone who wants to claim asylum must leave their home country first, so they flee to other countries. This is the standard way to seek asylum. “The concept of an orderly queue does not accord with the reality of the asylum process.” (Asylum Seekers and Refugees. What are the facts, Parliament of Australia website)
· Australia receives a fraction of the world’s asylum seekers each year. In 2013 alone, Sweden received 54,300 requests; France received 60,100; USA received 88,400; and Germany received 109,600 requests for asylum. In 2013, 24,300 people requested asylum in Australia. (www.unhcr.org)
(Source: https://br4r.org.au/facts-figures/).
Refugees are apostles
I suggest there is a close link between being a disciple and being a refugee. Being a refugee and being a disciple has much in common.
1. The link between being a refugee and being a disciple is established in the early Christian movement. Following the resurrection of Jesus, the early disciples had to flee Jerusalem and seek asylum in other countries because people like Saul who became Paul were killing them.
2. Matthew 10 cements a close link between persecution that leads to people seeking refugee status and persecution as a disciple: “10.23When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next.”
3. Like refugees, disciples also “10.19Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff.”
4. Seeking asylum and being sent by Jesus as Jesus to proclaim the Good News are similar in that both seek hospitality in new areas: “ 10.11Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy and stay there until you leave.”
My suggestion is that we receive people who are refugees as apostles sent to us by God in Jesus to cure our ills, to raise to life the parts of us that are dead, to cast out our demons and to proclaim God’s faith to us. World Refugee Day is not about what we can do for refugees but what they can do for us. Refugee day is about noissim esreveR, reverse mission. We consider the ministry that refugees offer us as apostles, rather than what our mission to refugees might be.
Just as Jesus sent the apostles to share God’s love with the world so too are we to see those who identify as refugees as sent to us by God to save us from our sins, the sins of indifference, consumerism, fear and a lack of compassion. Jesus sent apostles to “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers,* cast out demons.” May refugees be our apostles who cure our sickness, the sickness of having too much. May refugees be our apostles who raise the dead, the dead parts of our society who have forgotten compassion. May refugees be our apostles who cleanse our leprosy, the leprosy of fear of the other. May refugees be our apostles who cast out our demons, the demons of rampant capitalism. The question is this, if God’s sends us refugees (apostles), will we welcome them and allow their peace to bless our space? Or will they be rejected, forced to turn their backs on us, dusting their feet off as they leave? Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of a lack of hospitality. Will we be hospitable to the apostles that are sent to us as refugees?
12As you enter the house, greet it. 13If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15Truly I tell you; it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town (Matthew 10.12-14).