Discipleship
Generous Compassion
Sunday 6th June 2010
Welcome to worship today. It is wonderful to gather around the Communion table as a family who have been called by God to share this journey of life together. As we meet together, sharing Communion, let’s be mindful of those who have eaten at the table in days past and in times yet to come. We are sharing in a great mystery and feast that Christ has encouraged his followers to “remember him” as we partake in the “bread and wine”.
I am always conscious of people in the community who for whatever reasons feel that The Church is not a place where they might feel welcome, where the table is not a place where they can sit and be fed. God’s presence and care are often given form through the actions of God’s people. If we practise Generous Compassion in our lives as individuals AND as a Church, this perception of exclusion can be changed, I’m sure. This is some thing that we are trying to focus on as a congregation through our Op Shop ministry and in the Playgroup ministry as well as the Kids Hope Aus program at the School. Of course there are many individual relationships and regular connections that we all make that try to foster generous compassion in our daily lives.
In the readings for today from 1 Kings 17:8-24 and Luke 7:11-17 we find both Elijah and Jesus showing compassion as they minister to those considered by many to be on the fringes of society. Elijah is hungry when he arrives at Zarephath, and asks a widow for bread and water. Widows in biblical times were in a very precarious position, without secure means of support and without standing in society. This particular widow is gathering wood for the fire to cook all her remaining food, expecting that she and her son will then die. In spite of such incredible scarcity, the widow responds with what she has. She is generous despite her limitations and God provides abundantly.
Just as God fed Elijah through the ravens in the wilderness, so God provides for Elijah, the widow, and her son through the widows generosity. The widow’s small portion is transformed into an unlimited supply of flour and oil. Ordinary things become life-giving.
The readings today invite us to wonder about God’s power to save at work among us, even when we can not perceive it. God’s presence and care needs to inform our own ministry and discipleship as we demonstrate generous compassion for the people whom God brings into our realm of influence:- whether that is people in our families, people in our neighbourhood or those who come to the Op Shop or seeking food through our Hamper ministry or those whose Spirits are Hungry for God and find themselves sitting around the Communion Table today. Welcome…be fed and filled. Hmmm….my spirit is hungry for God today too.
Grace-Full feasting and sharing God’s resources this week…Rev Brad Foote
