OUR COMPASSIONATE GOD

 OUR COMPASSIONATE GOD is on my mind today. 

      Some people think that God is at a distance, uninvolved, unchangeable, and unresponsive... but this is NOT the God of the Bible. No, the Bible tells us about a God who created us, walks with us, is sometimes disappointed in us, and even weeps for us! The Bible tells us of a forgiving God of mercy who came to earth to save us by giving his own life on Golgotha's cross of agony and shame.
Our God speaks to us, listens to us, and sees us with eyes of love and compassion, which brings me to the story of the "Bent-over Woman" in the gospel of Luke. 

      According to Luke, Jesus was preaching in a synagogue on a Sabbath and there was a woman in attendance who was "bent over." I suspect she was sitting alone and I suspect that she didn't get many invites for coffee after the service. People ignored her and pretended that they didn't see her... but Jesus saw her! He saw her and called her forward and then without delay, he told her to rise and stand up because she had been freed from the forces that imprisoned her. And she stood straight up and looked Jesus in the eye, which is something that she hadn't been able to do for 18 years! She looked him and the others in the eye. She saw their faces and she saw that many of them were filled with joy and emotion. She stood tall and saw that it was God who had set her free and she began to praise God from the depths of her heart!
       It was a moment of unfettered joy, but the leader of the synagogue could not see this. He could not see that God had just touched and transformed a woman in his midst, and he even blamed the woman, pointing out that she could've been healed on any other day of the week. He could only think of process and the way he had always interpreted things, and he didn't have room in his mind or in his spirit... for the wonder and power of God. Well, Jesus rebutted his argument and rebuked all of those who couldn't see that an isolated woman had received a new lease on life. I suspect that she would have been more than pleased if Jesus had only recognized her, asked her how she was doing, and listened to her story. I'm sure that alone would have made her day, but he touched her and set her free.
       Friends, God loves us more than we love ourselves and much more that we love our neighbors. God is filled with grace and compassion and He expects us to pass it forward (which is what Matthew 25 is about). It's a great little story, which invites us to answer these questions: 1) what does God require of us? (Read Micah 6), 2) What does it mean to be "holy"? Does it involve staying away from people who don't meet our standards... or does it require us to give the respect, listen to their stories, and do what we can to meet their needs? 3) Jesus gave the leaders and scribes credit for tithing what they owned, down to and including the spices they owned, like mint and cumin. (see Matthew 25) in Jesus' view, they should have done this, BUT they ignored the more important matters of God's law, which are justice, mercy, and faithfulness! Record keeping is great, but people are greater and the most important Christian acts we will ever do... require us to show mercy because everybody is SOMEBODY in Christ, work for justice because every child of God deserves opportunity and justice! Forgiving, inviting, including, listening, responding, helping, affirming, sacrificing- these are the words that changed a lonely and isolated woman's life!
       May God give us the courage and grace to make them part of our journeys as well! Amen!