Our Shared Covenant of Compassion
The Rev. William A. Kolb

Then 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. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 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. -- Matthew 9:35-10:8 NRSV

The people of the Covenant, the land of Israel, the Lord's chosen and adored people, the Jews – are to Christians and Christianity as a mother is to her child. We Christians are Jewish to our very roots; in fact, our roots ARE Jewish. We hear from this morning's Old Testament reading in the Book of Exodus, "I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself; now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. You shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation."

And so it is until this very day. That covenant remains in effect, not just between the Jewish people of the world and God, but between the New Israel, the Body of Christ, and God. The Christian New Covenant would be hollow without the roots of the much-older Covenant between Abraham and His Lord God Jehovah, Yahweh.

And so what is it that we, Jew and Christian alike, are called to do as members of a Covenant with God? Surely if there is a Covenant, there is a mission and a purpose to our existence.

For a possible answer, let's turn first to David J. Wolpe, Assistant to the Chancellor of Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. Mr. Wolpe is the author of Teaching Your Children about God in Speech and in Silence, and author as well of The Healer of Shattered Hearts. His latest book, Why Be Jewish? is the source of this quote, that may give us a clue to our common mission as God's people:

Judaism's originality lay in insisting that God cared even more for how we treated other human beings than for how we acted toward God. Goodness is an acknowledgment of the Divine in another human being and of human fragility. Judaism urges us to sin against God before we would sin against another who is in God's image. God can bear our sin. We cannot injure God, but we can destroy each other.

Our first task therefore is kindness toward those who are created in the Divine image: the poor, the stranger, the neighbor, and the friend. The Torah cautions us about our behavior toward the stranger no less than thirty-six times, because it is often hardest to see God's image in one whom you do not know or understand. Again and again the people of Israel are reminded that they were strangers in the land of Egypt and so must treat the stranger with empathy and decency. Feeling the spark of God in one different from you is at the heart of the Jewish message.

That is so true: when we gather with strangers and find that we have more in common than different, we know there is something bigger than us in this life. Something more than flesh and bone, that is, spirit that comes from beyond us and that does not die when our bodies die. In the tragic airline crash at Little Rock not long ago, a young adult was interviewed who reported that there were, in the immediate aftermath of the accident, small groups of survivors huddled together outside the plane, waiting for rescue teams, and in the midst of those little clumps of passengers there was an injured person or persons, and the non-injured were shielding them from the fierce rainstorm, hovering over them like mother hens. This young man said that it was "kinda neat" to see that kind of instant community pop up among strangers.

So perhaps part or all of our mission and purpose is to comfort the wounded, to shield the innocent, to walk alongside the lame and halt. Think about it: Dr. Wolpe suggests that God would rather we sinned against God rather than against another human being. When I first heard about this quote from a friend I found it hard to believe. I thought of the ten commandments: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. How could any informed religious leader suggest that it is worse to hurt our friend (or enemy) than to hurt God? And then when I read it, I remembered some things. First was the 2nd great commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Most important perhaps was the thought that to hurt one of God's children (that is anybody) is to hurt God. Of course. When a parent sees his or her child being hurt, most would much rather be hurt themselves. So much more so must it be with God. God loves us so much that He would rather be hurt than see us hurt.

In this morning's Gospel reading, God's love and adoration for all of God's children are again shown. The Covenant, old and new, between God and God's people, is manifested once again. Jesus sends out the twelve to heal suffering and to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God's love, forgiveness and eternal life.

These twelve begin as disciples (those who follow and learn) but are appointed Apostles, those who have learned and go to teach and go to heal like the master. And why does Jesus do this, why does he send these twelve out to heal and comfort? Why does he send his twelve dear friends out among dangers and hostility?

Out of compassion and love for the people. Because he knows they are like sheep without a shepherd, not knowing which way to go or how to get there or even where they ought to go. It had been a long time since Israel had had a true prophet, and the people had no guidance, no inspiration. Just as we hear God's "chesed" (his never-failing, never-ending love for each of us) proclaimed through Moses in our Old Testament reading this morning, now we hear it again in the Gospel reading. Same God, same love, same people: all people.

God's love and compassion are everywhere. I have seen in recent days, such wonderful examples: I have been reminded that new life is possible; I see that resurrection is a fact: I know an older man, who has been bitter and angry for years, and it has been obvious to anyone who knew him. Today he is a mellower man; this man who considered himself an atheist until just a short time ago said to me the other day, "Yes, please do say a prayer;" and this man is now experiencing a resurrected and rich relationship with his daughter ...hear these words from her:

"Today as my father was leaving for physical therapy I said, ‘I'll see you later Daddy. I love you.' He answered ‘I do too.' I said, ‘What does that mean? I do too?' You're supposed to say ‘I love ya back.' He said, ‘I don't love ya back, I love all of you.' This is the second time in my life that he has told me he loves me; the first time was the day before yesterday when he was on his way to surgery."

There is in our community a man about 40 who has had several traumatic losses in the past seven years, and as a result has suffered a great depression, a number of suicide attempts, treatments of various kinds...he has just been inconsolable. But today he is active; he experiences much less depression, he has friends, and his life is meaningful and often enjoyable.

There is simply no such thing as a lost cause...we never know when the next act of kindness or another day of not giving up on someone will enable God's resurrecting power to explode into that person's life. We simply never know.

And so Jesus sent forth the Apostles, to heal, to give hope and to proclaim. When you think about it, to heal is to proclaim. And to proclaim is to heal.

Healing is not always of the body. Healing does not necessarily mean curing. Healing is sometimes just finding the peace and strength to deal with something that can't be cured. When the body is diseased, the spirit can be healed even if the body cannot be.

Healing can be proclamation; that is, the healing I have seen take place in this community has proclaimed God's powerful love to me as I have seen it manifested in peoples' lives. And by the same token, proclamation can be healing. When Jesus sent out the Apostles to proclaim and to heal, these were inextricably intertwined. When they proclaimed that the Kingdom of God had come near, and declared that God's love was for all people, for each person, and that that love was not only unconditional but eternal, surely that was a deeply healing piece of news.

A final thought: to be a person of faith is to be a person who is "sent." There is always a mission. That's why God gathers people of faith, in every place, in every age: to send them forth to do God's work on earth. That is why Jesus sent forth the Apostles. God has an ongoing mission and if we are part of God we are part of that mission, always. As "sent" people, perhaps we should say that we should ask not what our Lord and God can do for us, but what can we do for God?

Considering what we have been looking at this past little while, perhaps we should say that our purpose and mission as people of God is, in the words of this morning's collect, to proclaim God's Truth with boldness in every way that we can, to heal in every way that we can, and to bring hope into the lives of others, in every way that we can, every chance we get.

Delivered at Calvary Episcopal Church, Memphis, Tennessee, June 13, 1999.

Copyright 1999 Calvary Episcopal Church

[back to top]