Compassion, press 1

Someone said to me recently that ‘caring’ is a growth industry. And sure enough in the public services pages of local papers there are lists upon lists of ‘caring’ help-lines, hotlines, advice-lines and dear knows what all.

They each offer expert advice, a ‘listening ear’ and in depth understanding. So you push the right button and all is well!

A psychiatrist who was being rather cynical and critical of the idea that telephone push buttons would be any help suggested, tongue in cheek, that a “ Psychiatric Hotline” for example would likely offer the following menu of options.

If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.

If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.

If you have multiple personalities, please press 3,4,5 and 6.

If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and voice will tell you which number to press.

If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line while we trace this call!

Caring with compassion is not about pressing numbers. We may patiently push number after number when it comes to trying to fix a computer but fixing a person, caring for someone is personal, immediate and not the stuff of recorded messages and mechanical responses.

Jesus cared with compassion for his disciples and he cared about the crowds that reached out to him for help. He expressed his compassion for them in his teaching and in his healing ministry.

In the Gospel reading today the lectionary quite deliberately suggests two blocks of verses from the sixth chapter of Mark’s Gospel. They are the top and the tail of the chapter. In between them are dramatic stories of Jesus that demonstrate his power and divinity – the feeding of the 5000 and the report about him walking on the water.

But in choosing to draw our attention to the top and the tail, the lectionary is saying to us – look first at the nature of Jesus, look first at his character, before going on to the blockbuster events in his ministry. By looking at his character and how he relates to people, individually and collectively, you will see the nature of God.

Yes, marvel at his miraculous works but first see the compassion of a loving Lord, a Good Shepherd, who cares for the sheep.

This personal insight comes at a time when the disciples have been coming to terms with the senseless murder of John the Baptist. It is also a time of affirmation following the success of their healing and teaching ministry.

Jesus had sent them out two by two and they had returned with great joy and confidence in God. I suppose we could say they were on a ‘high’. They wanted to carry on, to keep going.

Mark tells us “they did not even have a chance to eat”. Physically then they were tired and hungry. But they were so busy, so enthralled and so enthusiastic.

Jesus said to them: “Wise up! Get a bit of common sense.” “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Give yourselves a break!

It’s a very human response, a very caring response and a very wise strategy. It’s also an expression of compassion, the kind of compassion that recognises that in our ministry we are only human, not superhuman.

In effect Jesus is saying, “care for yourself” otherwise you won’t be fit to care for anyone else. Get the balance right, you can’t do everything all of the time.

In his ministry Jesus helped many people but left many without help. He couldn’t be in two places at once. This is part of human reality.

Perhaps there is a lesson here for folk who find themselves run of their feet caring for someone. There are times when such individuals and families need to take time out, come ‘to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Then there was the crowd. In spite of their best efforts to get away from it all Jesus and the disciples were out manoevoured and the crowd caught up with them

They were buzzing with stories about his miracles and no doubt they were expecting more of the same, something spectacular. They flocked around Jesus from all parts of the country.

Was Jesus angry and impatient at their persistence? Seems not. However Mark does not say how the disciples reacted to their demands. Chances are, tired and hungry as they were, they were not best pleased.

The demands of the crowd and their needs were great but the disciples had probably had enough for one day.

Nevertheless Jesus looked at this exasperating, interrupting crowd with compassion and saw ‘sheep without a shepherd”.

The expression is an echo from the story of Moses praying to God to appoint someone to succeed him as a leader “so that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep without a shepherd”.

God chose Joshua whose name of course is a variant of the name Jesus.

The use of that expression ‘sheep without a shepherd’ is more than likely intended as a rebuke on the religious leaders of the day.

As shepherds they had a responsibility to lead the sheep on safe pathways; to help them find food; to defend them against danger, to find them when they wander off and to restore them to the fold.

So practising what he preached Jesus response to the crowd that day, to these ‘sheep without a shepherd”, was not to perform a spectacular miracle but rather to “teach them many things”. Teaching them, reassuring them of the love and mercy of God.

One writer commenting on this event said: “Jesus never seems to be put off by our interruptions, by our constant need of his compassion and teaching. This story affirms his extraordinary availability and caring nature.”

Word and Sacrament are at the core of the Church’s Ministry, providing teaching and food for the soul. But bread and blankets are also important and in expressing compassion in a meaningful and personal way we are called to be as Christ in a needy world, in the crowd, reaching out with practical help and hope.

This is not a push button ministry. But as someone has said in the rapid advances of robot technology we may be in danger of “engineering out all the breathing room.”

He meant we are in danger of reducing our human capacity to care to so many push buttons and delegating words of compassion to a mechanical voicemail. ‘Compassion, press 1’ just doesn’t work.

Mother Teresa once said: “The biggest disease today is not leprosy or cancer. It’s the feeling of being uncared for, unwanted – of being deserted and alone”.

In such aworld we need ‘breathing room’, the human touch, the caring love of Christ.

“Breathe on me, Breath of God,

that I may love what thou dost love,

and do what thou wouldst do.”

Amen