Cultivating A Compassionate and Wakeful Heart
The Rev Christina
Proper 8 Year B | James 2:1-10, [11-13], 14-17
In her book, Radical Acceptance, Tara Brach (a Buddhist psychologist, teacher, and writer) tells the story of a beloved Rabbi’s funeral. After the service the Rabbi’s students are chatting with one another, when one of the younger students’ asks one of the more seasoned disciples, “What most mattered to our master?” The disciple smiles and says, “Whomever he was with at that moment.” Brach observes that “This Rabbi did not reserve his time and energy for just those with money and power, for just his family or closest disciples. He brought his wholehearted attention to each person he was with and offered the gift of a fully compassionate and wakeful heart.”
I think this Rabbi’s story is so moving, because it isn’t easy to offer the gift of a fully compassionate and wakeful heart, but it makes such a difference to receive it. It isn’t easy to give everyone you are with your whole and undivided attention, especially during the demands of our busy days: to stop and listen to everything a child has to tell you, or to not multitask while you are holding space for a friend, to take a moment to say hello to someone you don’t really know, or to show kindness to someone you may not even like. It isn’t always easy to offer the gift of a compassionate and wakeful heart, but what if every once in a while we did?
This is an element of what the writer of James is talking about in our epistle reading this morning when he says, “Do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?” James gives the example of a wealthy, important looking person coming into an assembly (or what we might call a church) where they are welcomed warmly and given the best seat in the house. In contrast, someone who isn’t dressed well and is obviously having hardship in their life is told to sit in a different spot that signifies less respect and honor. A distinction has been made between the value of these two people. One matters more than the other.
James goes on to quote Israel’s law saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” urging his audience to be more like the compassionate Rabbi who didn’t decide who was important enough to pay attention to, but received everyone he came across as his neighbor. So how do we cultivate this kind of compassionate and wakeful heart? How do we receive every person as our equal?
First we have to know that we are God’s beloved, and this Source of Love is inside of us
loving us unconditionally and limitlessly. Episcopal Priest Reverend Ed Bacon tells a story from when he was only five years old that forever changed his life. He was playing alone in a pine grove in South Georgia when all of a sudden he was enveloped by warmth and light, and he heard in the deepest part of himself, “You are the most beloved creature in all of creation.” At the same time he received this message he also heard, “And every other person is the most beloved creature in all of creation.”
Reverend Bacon learned that day that when we know how much God loves and values us we can see how much God loves and values those around us, and treat them accordingly. So cultivating a compassionate and wakeful heart comes from knowing that we are God’s beloved and practicing seeing this same belovedness in whomever we are with, in any given moment
I think our gospel story shows us how to do this. In our gospel reading, Jesus has entered a house in the Gentile region of Tyre. At this time, Jews and Gentiles don’t interact with one another. Gentiles are considered unclean because they don’t follow Israel’s purity laws and Jesus’ mission on earth is to reform his own religion of Judaism.
While Jesus is trying his best to be inconspicuous in this region, a Gentile woman finds him and bows down at his feet. She begs Jesus to cast out a demon that is tormenting her daughter. Jesus responds by saying, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it the dogs.” In other words Jesus is saying to let him feed the children of Israel first, because the Jewish people are the focus of his ministry, and it wouldn’t be fair to give the gifts he has for the Jews to the Gentiles who are considered as lowly as dogs.
These are pretty shocking words coming from Jesus’ mouth and they’re hard to interpret. Perhaps Jesus is challenging the woman so that she will affirm her faith. Or maybe this is a moment when we see Jesus’ imperfect humanity. Or perhaps, as a wise Rabbi, Jesus is giving us a chance to identify with his response to the woman so that we can learn how to grow beyond it. I wonder what would happen if we read the rest of our story through this lens. It might look something like this…
The conversation progresses and the woman answers, ”Jesus, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” and Jesus sees the faith of this woman and immediately heals her child. Jesus has seen and heard the woman kneeling before him in this moment. She is no longer just a Gentile, but his neighbor, because her story has intersected with his, making them interconnected. She matters more than the prejudices of his culture. She is a real person with a real need. She has a mother’s love for her daughter and an authentic faith.
Jesus’ response shows what can happen when we allow people we have seen as separate from ourselves or as “other” to enter into our heart space. He models how our hearts can change when we identify with people’s stories and recognize that they too are our neighbor. We become more compassionate and loving. We wake up to the needs around us. We contribute to others’ healing.
So in order to cultivate compassionate and wakeful hearts we have to know that we are God’s beloved and that whomever we are encountering, in any give moment, is also God’s beloved, and therefore what matters most. We have to practice seeing and hearing them, even when we have prejudices or think they are separate from us. Though it may feel scary or uncomfortable at times, we have to be willing to let them enter into our heart space. Then the Love that is inside of us can relate to the Love that is inside of our neighbor, instead of relating to each other in all the ways our culture identifies us. We can experience how interconnected our stories really are and we both can be transformed by this Love.
So my invitation to us all is to courageously begin or continue down this path of cultivating compassionate and wakeful hearts. To practice seeing, hearing, and relating to the people around us through the Love that is inside of each one of us, letting this strengthen our interconnectedness. Naomi Shihab Nye summarizes this well in her poem ‘Kindness’:
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
You must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
Lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
How he too was someone
Who journeyed through the night with plans
And the simple breath that kept him alive
So may you know that the same breath of God that is keeping you alive is keeping your neighbor alive and is given equally and indiscriminately to each one of us.
