Historical series, 1. Delivered at the 1st biennial convention, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Ottawa, Jl 8 1987

Sjoberg, Donald W.

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Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 30Issue 2 Festechrift: Faith Elizabeth Rohrbough Article 711-1-2005One in mission - a compassionate churchDonald W. SjobergFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Sermons is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationSjoberg, Donald W. (2005) "One in mission - a compassionate church ," Consensus: Vol. 30 : Iss. 2 , Article 7.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol30/iss2/7HISTORICAL SERIES, 1One In Mission - A Compassionate ChurchDonald W. SjobergNational Bishop (Ret.), Evangelical Lutheran Church In Canada -Winnipeg, Manitoba(Editor’s Note: This sermon was preached at the opening worshipservice of the first biennial Convention of the Evangelical LutheranChurch in Canada [ELCIC], 8 July 1987, in St. Joseph RomanCatholic Church, Ottawa, Ontario. The Rev. Donald W. Sjoberg, thefirst National Bishop of the ELCIC, served in that ministry from 1986to 1993; prior to that he had been Bishop of the Western CanadaSynod of the Lutheran Church in America from 1970 to 1985. Thesermon takes up the theme of the Convention, “One in Mission”; theConvention subsequently gave approval for a Church-wide appealfor $5 million, “Forward in Mission.”)Thank you, Archbishop Plourde, for your kind words and graciouswelcome to St. Joseph Church. We are grateful for the hospitalityshown to our Church as we gather for our opening worship service.I am pleased that many of our ecumenical guests are with us thisevening, reminding us of the many Christians with whom we are“one in mission.”Matthew 9:36-38. When (Jesus) saw the crowds, he hadcompassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, likesheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvestis plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of theharvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” (RSV)We are to be compassionate as our Lord is compassionate. Thatcompassion is clearly shown in the history of God’s people. The poor,the widow, the orphan and the stranger are named as those to whomcompassion is to be shown. Jesus reaches out to those who have beenshunted aside in society, and embraces the outcasts and alienated onesso as to bring them healing and help. That ministry is now entrustedto his followers. They are to bring to light the human conditionswhich cause separation as well as to announce God’s dominion99Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2005breaking in to set things right.Matthew Fox, in his book on compassion, quotes ThomasAquinas who wrote: “Compassion is the fire which the Lord hascome to send on earth.” It is this fire which we carry into the worldas the baptized. 11. The fire of compassion is to burn within us when we see humanneed.When Jesus saw the crowds he knew their needs from havingvisited with them, walked among them, eaten with them, heard theirstories, laughed and wept with them. People were harassed andhelpless, without leaders to champion the cause of the poor andoppressed.Today we also see the face of human need through the eyes ofothers as they describe situations around the world. The media focusour attention on particular places, such as the famine in Ethiopia, andwe do respond with our gifts to the relief efforts. But in the face ofmany similar disasters we often feel overwhelmed and helpless. Theimmensity of the problems and the complexity of finding solutionsmay cause us to despair. One person remarked to me, “It is all sodepressing. Besides, I have my own worries and am barely able tocope with those.” Sometimes we would like to “pull down the blinds”and close our eyes to the problems. Missionary Barry Lange tells ofbeing in a restaurant when two boys rubbed their noses against thewindow looking at the food. The waiter then came and pulled theblind, saying, “Don’t let them bother you. Enjoy your meal.” A groupfrom Western Canada visiting Peru experienced the same in arestaurant in Cusco. But after seeing the hungry faces in the windowthere was no enjoyment of the meal.We get used to the suffering and pain of others and they becomea statistic or a part of the world’s landscape. We do not know theirnames or their personal stories. Avoidance is possible, but withavoidance something dies in us – something which makes us human:Compassion.Thank God there are people who cry in outrage that it is not rightthat people should suffer preventable diseases, poverty, andmalnutrition. Years ago Missionary Anne Beretta wrote from Peruabout a young member of the congregation who had shown suchgreat promise, but who died of tuberculosis. “There is absolutely no100 Consensushttp://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol30/iss2/7reason,” she wrote, “why a young man should die of TB in this dayof modern medicine.”To see human need is also to see it as the result of sinfulness andthe human condition whereby we are disconnected from one another.Compassion is not pity, for that can mean separating ourselves fromthose in need. Compassion is to suffer with, to be one in pain.2. The fire of compassion burns within us when we DO somethingin the face of human needs.To see the sufferings and only to feel sorry is to let the fire ofcompassion smoulder and die. Human needs must surely drive aChristian to God and an outburst of prayers. We pray “for the wholepeople of God in Christ Jesus, and for all people according to theirneeds” as part of each Sunday’s worship.2 Did we ever think of suchprayer as being a little “dangerous”? Jesus saw the need for morepeople to minister in the world and told his disciples to pray for moreworkers. God may tap us on the shoulder and point to something weare to do when we pray like that.Doing something may be to learn about a specific situation,become part of a study group, or write letters to those in authority.Doing something may be to read the Scriptures with the help of thosewho are poor and work with the poor. So often we read the Bible fromthe perspective of the privileged.Doing something always involves us where we are. “Rolling upyour sleeves to work where you live” is the way Mother Teresaresponded when people asked what they could do to help. At acommemorative service in Soweto, a young woman addressed thevisitors from other countries: “Remember that compassion begins athome. Do not give us your sympathy, your help, unless, first of all,you work for justice and truth where you are. Do not give us yourhypocrisy.”Doing something enables us to see the relationship between faithand action, and to visualize compassion happening elsewhere. Wegain confidence and courage from a variety of experiences in socialactions and from contacts with others who strive for peace andjustice. Thankfully, our Church participates with many ecumenicalorganizations in the work of advocacy and relief.Of course, there are some times when all we can do is to entrustthe needs to God. This was illustrated for me when I heard theA Compassionate Church 101Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2005remarks of our tour guide at the Pieta in Rome. We looked at thestatue of Mary holding the dead Christ. With her right arm Mary doesthe human thing, does what she can, which is to hold the lifelessform. But the other arm she extends as an offering and as prayer. Thatalso is important because we are directed to God’s promise andpower.3. The fire of compassion burns within us when there is anticipationof God’s presence and intervention.God champions the causes of people precisely when they areoppressed and estranged. Looking at the crowds Jesus sees a plentifulharvest. Those are words of hope. Compassion is born of hope; itrarely flows from despair. Cynical people speak of a harvest in termsof “reaping the whirlwind” – distrust, suspicion, anger, war, andviolence. What can you expect from bad seeds? From seeds that havebeen sown over many generations causing strife and selfishness,destroying human communities?The biblical picture of harvest comes with a promise of the “newthing” God is doing (Isaiah 43:19). “May those who sow in tears reapwith songs of joy” (Psalm 126:5). The kind of harvest described inGalatians is the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control” (5:22).My childhood recollections of harvesting are of happy times asneighbours came together to thresh the grain. (I grew up on a farmnorth of Clanwilliam, Manitoba.) I enjoyed the liveliness andlaughter with which the harvest was gathered. The common taskinvolved hard work but it was done with joy, playfulness andlaughter. Grimness does not make a good reaper. For the hungrythreshing crew there was food – lots of it. There was noon dinner,afternoon lunch, and a huge supper at the end of the day, all preparedand served by my hard-working mother. Eating well resulted in ahappy and hard-working crew. Jesus sees the needs of the people as a harvest which has to begathered through hard work and cooperation.This evening after a long and perhaps tiresome day we come tothe Holy Meal. We come with our own concerns as well as knowingof the burdens of others. Tonight we are among the Lord’s harvestinglabourers sharing a common mission to proclaim the good news ofJesus Christ and to serve the needs of all God’s people. We come to102 Consensushttp://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol30/iss2/7be nourished and renewed in our love, faith, and hope. Fed with theone heavenly food we glimpse God’s banqueting table in which noone need go hungry or be alienated from the community. Once morewe may go forth in the peace of the Lord to be compassionate people.Thomas Aquinas’s words ring out: Compassion is the fire the lordhas come to send on earth. May we go with that fire! May our Churchbe One in Mission!Notes1 Matthew Fox. A Spirituality Named Compassion and the Healing of theGlobal Village, Humpty Dumpty and Us (Winston Press, 1979), Preface,vi.2 The invitation to common prayer in the liturgy of Holy Communion,Lutheran Book of Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1978), 65 etpassim.A Compassionate Church 103Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2005

One in mission - a compassionate church

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