We are Society, pt. 4— Collective Compassion

Compassionate: We will live among and serve the less fortunate, overlooked and in a way that embodies the way of Jesus and seeks to find in the face of those on the fringes.

Matthew 9: 35-38 CSB
Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.

James 2:15-17 CSB
If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

Outside of the Lord’s prayer itself, Jesus doesn’t often tell his followers what to pray for, but this time he does … As his followers pray that prayer, the answer comes back worrying quickly: you are, yourselves, to be the answer to your own prayer. —NT Wright:

Question for Reflection: What makes Society distinct as a Compassionate community? 

1. The Why:

Joshua 4:1-9 CSB
After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua: “Choose twelve men from the people, one man for each tribe, and command them: Take twelve stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan where the priests are standing, carry them with you, and set them down at the place where you spend the night. So Joshua summoned the twelve men he had selected from the Israelites, one man for each tribe, and said to them, “Go across to the ark of the LORD your God in the middle of the Jordan. Each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each of the Israelite tribes, so that this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean to you? ’ you should tell them, ‘The water of the Jordan was cut off in front of the ark of the LORD’s covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan’s water was cut off.’ Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites. The Israelites did just as Joshua had commanded them. The twelve men took stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each of the Israelite tribes, just as the LORD had told Joshua. They carried them to the camp and set them down there. Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing. The stones are still there today.

One aspect of Spiritual Growth is to pause, reflect and share your with others. 

Revelation 12:11 KJV
They overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb & the word of their testimony.

Question for Reflection: Have you taken a moment to pause and process rather than pushing forward to keep moving?

Question for reflection: Do you see your face in the people we serve?  Do those you’re connected to feel the same?

2. The How:

Galatians 5:22 CSB
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.

CIRCLES DIAGRAM

Question for Reflection: As you examine the circles, is there one area you feel is a challenge to sacrifice? 

Mark 8:34-35 CSB
Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it.

We should not become weary of doing the little things for the love of God.  God regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which the work is done. – Brother Lawrence

3. The Who:

Psalm 146: 5-9 CSB
Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. He remains faithful forever, executing justice for the exploited and giving food to the hungry. The LORD frees prisoners. The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD raises up those who are oppressed. The LORD loves the righteous. The LORD protects resident aliens and helps the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

RACIAL COVENANTS IN SACRAMENTO HOUSING

You can take any social ill and measure it by that X: who drops out of high school, where gang activity is, who doesn’t have health insurance, where subprime lending is, where foreclosures are. Who gets the flu (or Covid), who uses more water. Just about anything. – Dr. Jesus Hernandez

MORTGAGE MAP

We are not to simply bandage wounds of the victims beneath the wheel of injustice, but to put a spoke in the wheel itself. – Dietrich Bonhoefer,

Matthew 9:37 CSB
The harvest is abundant but the workers are few”

Answer Key: marginalized, God; stones; story; circles; cotton