Today is the third Sunday of a four week sermon series called Caring with the heart of

Jesus. Each week were going deep into a quality of Jesus heart, and then were thinking about
how we can share that quality in a particular situation.
I know that many of us want to be in a relationship with Jesus. I know this because
youve told me. Caring with a quality of the heart of Jesus is a way to be in relationship with
him. When we live out these qualitiestwo weeks ago we looked at wisdom, last week we
looked at gentleness, today we are looking at compassionwe are being Jesus. Were
connecting to Jesus and were sharing Jesus.
There is a lot at stake in this series. Part of what is at stake is the opportunity you and I
have to grow to be like Christ. To be in relationship with Jesus means we know his heart and we
know how to share his heart.
Were doing things a bit differing in that Im starting off by teaching on the quality of the
heart of Jesus, then were singing a song, and then were applying that quality into a specific
situation.
Today were looking at compassionand were applying compassion towards our
treatment of cancer patients.
Id like to invite you to get out this brochure that is in the bulletin. This week I wrote a
devotion for you on compassion. Please use it this week. Please share your comments about the
devotion. I want to make sure that were using the devotion. Let me know how you are using it
and ways that the devotion is helpful or not helpful. IN the middle is a place to take notes.
For myself I am passionate about compassion. In my own relationship with Jesus I want
to be known as a compassionate person. I want our faith community to function at the highest
levels of compassion. Someday I would like to write a book of essays about compassion. I

believe that the future of the human race depends on compassion. Well never be at war with
people when we share compassion with them.
Compassion is at the center of the heart of Jesus.
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If we transliterate compassion from the Greek word we come up with the word,

splanchizomai. It is similar to the word translated as splanchon. In a physical sense splanchon

describes our inner organs, like our heart or our guts. From a spiritual or emotional sense
splanchon describes the deepest part of who we are. Some people have described splanchon as
the seat of our emotions or who we are as a spiritual being.
Splanchon is the noun and splanchizomai is the verb. This compassion comes from a
deep place inside of us. When we are experiencing or sharing compassion we are literally
sharing the inner most parts of who we are with another person.
We can see how compassion is deeply spiritual. When we celebrate a baptism, like we
did last week with Miah, we celebrate that God is at the center of our being. God forms our
identity. Its not too much of a leap to say that when we share splanchizomai or compassion
were sharing more than a human emotion. Were sharing something deeply spiritual.
Also when we share compassion we are entering into the suffering of another person.
When we experience compassion were captured by iteven if were captured for a brief
moment.
Words cant always describe compassion. Our own tears might share what we are feeling
or the description of our face or the posture of our body. The language of compassion is more
than oral language. Sometimes when we share compassion we are silent, we are listening, and
we are very present to all that is taking place.

However we can share words when we share compassion. I often get asked by others
what words we should say to another person is suffering.

Its my experience that some helpful

words to share compassion are Im sorry and just leave it at that.

There are nuances to compassion that are very important to understand. Often the word,
pity is used as a synonym for compassion, but its very different. Pity can express sorrow
without entering into the emotion of the situation. Pity stays at a distance. Pity can be
intellectual, an activity of the brain. This isnt compassion because were not emotionally
connected. This is being sorry with our head, but not our heart or our guts.
Pity waits at the door of a suffering person, while compassion walks through that door.
In many ways our culture doesnt value compassion. When someone is suffering its
much easier to blame the person who is suffering and look for causes of suffering. There is
almost a need to know why someone is suffering. Its like were thinking, did this person
bring this on themselves or whos responsible. For those of us who like order we need to know
whos responsible for this.
Often well blame the person for their own suffering. Blaming a person for their
suffering or going off on a search for responsibility for suffering is not compassion.
For example. When a person has cancer part of us wants to knowdid the person
smoke, how often did the person see the doctor, did the doctor miss it, did the person have a
family history. We want to know why.
Compassion isnt interested in the why of suffering. Compassion enters into the reality
of suffering.
Lets be honest. Its much safer to keep emotionally distant from a person who is
suffering. When we express compassion we are entering a messy place.

You havent mentioned Jesus yet. This is all about Jesus. One of the reasons I love Jesus
is his compassion for people who were suffering. Jesus was able and willing to enter into the
suffering he saw around him. A few examples.
One is the story of Jesus healing Lazarus in John 11. A lot of us know this story because
it has the shortest verse in the Bible. Let me set up. Jesus had heard that Lazarus was ill and he
came from a distance to help Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha. Ill let the story speak
for itself.
SLIDE
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you
had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had
come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Where have you laid
him? he asked.
Come and see, Lord, they replied.
Jesus wept.

The word, compassion isnt used in this story, but we can see the compassion. We can
see how Jesus responded from the deepest part of who he was. Jesus didnt use words to share
compassion. The response of his body was compassion.
Jesus shared parables about compassion.
In the story of the Good Samaritan a Jewish man was beaten and left half dead on the side
of the road. A priest and Levite passed by. A Samaritan didnt. The Samaritan experienced
splanchizomai, Luke 10:33. The NRSV is my favorite translation, but in this story the word
splanchizomai was translated incorrectly. When you read the verse youll see the Samaritan
experienced pity. The Samaritan didnt experience pity. He entered into the suffering of the
man who was on the side of the road. He experienced compassion. Then he helped him.
In the story of the Prodigal SonLuke 15the younger son ran away from his father.
Before he ran away he asked for and was given an inheritance from his father. He lost all of the
money through dissolute living. The son decided to come back to his father. He had decided to

work as a slave for his father. When the father saw him he experienced splanchizomai
compassion. He welcomed the son back into his family.
And in todays story. Its a story that we dont hear often. Jesus and his crowds came to
the edge of a village. The crowd with Jesus came upon another crowd. A man was being carried
to outside of the village where he was going to be buried. Cemeteries in Jesus day were not
inside the village. The mans mother was part of the procession. The man who had died was the
womans only son. Not only that, but the womans husband had died. She was a widow.
This woman had lost two people. The loss she experienced is not something that anyone
should experience. Not only did she experience this loss, but she was in danger of being
financially destitute. She was dependent on these two men for her financial livelihood.
What word do you think described the response of Jesus to the woman. Splanchizomai
compassion. He told the womando not weep. His words were not in the motivation of do not
cry. Instead it was as if Jesus was saying do not weep or I will help you. He brought the man to
life.
I love the part of the story that said, Jesus gave him to his mother. Its as if Jesus was
saying, here is my offering to you. Here is your son. What compassion.
We cant be fully human without compassion. Compassion is partly an emotion, so we
cant control when we are feeling it. To share compassion means we have to access something
deep within us. For Minnesotans this isnt easy as were not taught to be emotional people.
We cultivate compassion.
We cultivate compassion through reflection and prayer. We reflect on the compassion
that God has for us. God shares compassion with us even when we dont deserve compassion.

That can move us to want to share compassion. Were moving into the heart of Jesus. We share
what God has shared with us.
But the world cant be changed without compassion. We cant end homelessness in
Anoka County unless we are captured by compassion. Compassion for the teens and the families
of the teens. Without compassion ending teen homelessness is just a task. We all have plenty of
tasks.
We cant be a complete congregation unless we are captured by compassion. When we
are filled with compassion we are going to go above and beyond what is asked. We dont have
to be told how to care for someone when were experiencing compassion. Our compassion will
dictate our care. Compassion is not a techniqueits a connection to the heart of Jesus.
When people outside our congregation see this compassion theyll want to connect to us.
Compassion is so special that people will want to connect to it.
Compassion is the heart of Jesus. When we share it were in deep relationship with him.

My experience with cancer patients is both personal and professional. Its personal in
that already Ive had friends who have passed away from cancer. My best friend in elementary
school, Jeff Gravon, died from cancer. He lived with me for a while when he was looking for a
job, I married him in an outdoor ceremony. He was a basketball coach, and I would go to his
games.
I was living in Rochester, and I would often sit with him at the Mayo Clinic as he
received chemotherapy. We had some great talks. When he went through his cancer we didnt
talk too much about that. I decided to let Jeff decide whether we would talk about his cancer.

One day I couldnt help myself and I asked him if he thought about death. Every day, he
replied. I learned that he was having this internal conversation that I never knew about.
One of the most nerve wracking experiences Ive ever had was sitting in a room with Jeff
waiting for a doctor to tell him the latest results of a scan on his body. We were so nervous that
we could hardly talk to each other. I literally felt that we were waiting to find out if Jeff was
going to live or die.
That day he received good news. But the news didnt turn out to be good. Less than two
years later I was standing behind a pulpit, giving the sermon at his funeral.
And my experience is professional. At the church I previously served we had two
women who were both young who eventually lost their lives to cancer. I was with both of them
the entire way. From the initial diagnosis to personal conversations to lots of prayers and lots of
encouraging the congregation to care for them to learning they werent going to be with us to
being nearby as they passed away to officiating at their funerals. And then being with their
families in the days afterwards
And, of course, our young congregation has suffered from cancer too.
Well always have someone on our prayer list who is suffering from cancer. Right now I
pray daily for Sandee Landsberg, a friend of my parents who is my friend too. I shared her story
at Easter. Donna Mc Cullen, Ken Mc Cullens wife. Ken is a terrific friend of Chain of Lakes.
Just this week Ken and I talked about the nine and a half years that Donna has gone through
cancer treatment.
On Wednesday a long-time member of the choir at the church where Amy works passed
away from pancreatic cancer. She found out about her diagnosis less than a month ago.

But I know that my experiences are like your experiences in that all of us have friends
and family who are suffering from cancer.
SLIDE 3,400 people are diagnosed with cancer every day in the United States.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. As I shared in my
congregational E-mail this past Thursday, 20.1 million adults have been diagnosed with cancer,
8.5 percent of the adult population.
It is close to us.
The good news is that often a cancer diagnosis is not an automatic death sentence. Some
cancers are being treated like a chronic illnesslike diabetes.
SLIDE

Cancer death rates declined for men by 1.8 percent a year and for women 1.4

percent a year from 2002 to 2011. New cases of cancer have declined every year.
Jeri and Chris are going to tell us more after worship about what was helpful and not
helpful to them when they received care from people. So Im not going to give a long list of
suggestions for caring.
There is never a more important time to share compassion then when we are caring for
someone who has cancer. Were called to listen well, to love greatly and to enter appropriately
into their suffering. Compassion.
There is no specific road map for caring with someone who has cancer. But there are
some guideposts on the journey that can help.
One guidepost is not to judge. Cancer patients have a lot of time on their hands and they
have a lot of time to think. Most cancer patient think a lot about how they developed their
cancer. Even though this probably seems obvious there really is no point for us to talk with them
about how they got cancer. Even though its confusing to us.

Dont even ask if they smoked, of if they had family members who had cancer, or if their
work environment might have contributed to their cancer. Even an innocent question like, did
anyone in your family have cancer can seem judgmental.
As a care giver were not called to be their doctor. The cancer patient has an oncologist
and an entire set of doctors. Because were not a doctor its out of line for us to give advice
about their treatment or even ask why they are doing a certain treatment. One piece of control a
cancer patient has is deciding their own treatment. The cancer patient gets to decide what type of
treatment they will have, or if they will try an alternative treatment, or if they decide that they
dont want to have any more treatment. Our role as a caregiver isnt to question their decisions.
Our role is to be compassionateto listen and to enter into their suffering.
Our role also is to listen and affirm the emotions the person has. If the person for whom
we are caring goes off on a rage, then let them go off on a rage. We shouldnt use any sort of
minimizing statements like, its going to be okay, or its really not that bad. If the patient says
its bad, then its bad. If the patient says their situation is not fair, then its not fair.
I think finally were called to have deep respect for what the person is experiencing and
enduring.