I can see (a little more) clearly now...

For the past week I have been on my back with an ugly flu bug and not able to do much writing (I know, I know, stop your whining life could be worse!) Today, as the old song says, "I can see clearly now..." Well, a little more clearly to be sure as this damned thing is finally giving up the ghost. Made me think of Johnny Nash from back in 1973 (dig his clothes!)

In addition to practicing what I often preach about self-care, however, this little break from work has kept me from preparing for Sunday's message. Over the years sermon writing and study has become the heart of my week: it is both a spiritual discipline for me personally - as it grounds me in prayer, scripture, tradition and challenge - and a way for me to be prayerful and strategic about the people I serve in this small congregation. To say that my inability to get on with it this week has left me a little unfocused would be an understatement.

My theme for Sunday is compassion - this is part 3 of a 4 part series on our new mission and vision statement - and curiously these words from Marcus Borg keep coming to mind:

Some people find the experience and practice of compassion as a spiritual discipline to be a more direct route to the transformation of the heart than prayer. It is not that prayer does not or should not play a role in their lives, but their way to the opening of the heart lies through deeds of compassion. "Just do it" summarizes this path of transformation.

I have also identified 4 key portions of scripture that seem to be calling to us as we wrestle with how to go deeper into the commitments of compassion:

+ Psalm 51: a cry for God's compassion and inner healing so that we might advance the cause

+ Jeremiah 31: a call to a new covenant written on our heart and filled with compassion for the world

+ Matthew 9: where Jesus invokes Hosea's admonition to learn that God desires compassion not religion and rule-keeping

+ And Luke 10: the story of the Good Samaritan - with MLK's insights from his very last sermon preached the night before his assassination

Well, that's what is clear to me right now: I am grateful for the chance to lay low and get better. I am grateful, too, for so many of your kind prayers and encouragement. And now, for those in the USA, on to MLK Day and the Inauguration!

Blessed is the Compassionate One who gives us compassion as a way of touching and being touched by the world around us.