By: Tim Kratzer, M.D.
A response to The Gifts of Healing by Pastor Colleen Dick from our December 2019 newsletter.
Pastor Colleen Dick’s sermon got me to thinking. What has divine compassion looked like in my own life and how can I experience and offer that compassion, me with my limited resources and weak faith? So again, what does this divine compassion look like? When I see the hungry I offer food. When I see the thirsty I give water. When I visit the sick I offer hope for a cure. When I encounter the stranger I invite him in. When I see the naked I give covering. What is my resource for these ministries of compassion? How can I offer hope when I see no hope?
My resources are never sufficient, but I am blessed. Peter and John at the temple had no money to offer the cripple, but they offered what they had. They had faith that in the name of Jesus he could rise up and walk. What is the motivation? In the name of Jesus…does the world know about Jesus? Sadly the majority of God’s created ones go on as if they will live forever. Those who are well supplied live as if they can take care of themselves, even to the point of not caring about their eternal souls. They are occupied with collecting riches here on earth, not thinking about their life beyond. Those who are impoverished or embattled are so beaten down that they see no hope. But I have encountered the Divine and know that there is life beyond, that there is hope. I am changed as divine compassion, the very Spirit of God, changes me and flows from me?
Divine compassion has stepped into my life and gives me power over sin and death. I say, “Yes”, to God, and the Spirit of God changes me in ways I could not imagine. What did the Holy Spirit do in the life of the early church? Those who were taught that they had to fulfill the law, were freed from the condemnation they had experienced under the law. Those who were serving the gods of their own creation, found the God who had created them and their world. Slaves were set free. The sick were healed. Sight was given to the blind. Hope was given to a world that was ruled by earthly, self- serving powers.
What is the Holy Spirit empowering me to do in today’s world? How can I experience divine compassion? I recall the question I began with, how can I experience and offer divine compassion, me with my limited resources and weak faith? I have eyes to see, keep them open. I have ears to hear, listen to the world around. I have a heart created to experience the Divine, feel with those who are seeking for meaning in the confusion of this broken world. Consider the many ways in which I have been blessed, share those blessings with others. Give witness to God’s transforming presence in my life, and thereby share that power which makes miracles possible. Divine compassion is Spirit directed, knowing no limits. Divine compassion is transforming, enabling me to live knowing that what I see now is but the beginning of life everlasting. Divine compassion gives me hope, even as I experience the weakness of my flesh. It suffers with those in need, but not without hope.
What is my hope?
“So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.” (I Cor 15:21-22)
What a blessing to know that in the journey we call life I have experienced divine compassion, and in experiencing divine compassion I have been introduced to the author of eternal life. As I am infilled and empowered by the very presence of God, the Holy Spirit, I am indeed experiencing and offering divine compassion. I belong to God and his power is present in all that I am and all that I do.
I am drawn back to Paul’s words of instruction in I Cor 15:3-4.
“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day.”
Then Paul goes on to give his testimony of God at work in his life.
“But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me-and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.” (I Cor 15:10)
So I come back to Pastor Dick’s sermon on the “Gifts of Healing” and the question, “Divine compassion. Have you ever experienced divine compassion? Divine meaning ‘of or belonging to God’ or ‘proceeding from God.’ ” I would suggest that the compassion that arises from within me is of the Holy Spirit and gives witness to the power of God which has power over sin and death. What a blessing is mine to live in that spirit-filled reality. Thank you Pastor Dick for reminding me that God is at work demonstrating divine compassion in today’s world.