Softly and Tenderly

Have you ever had a time when you were entirely dependent upon a rescuer? This happens. It happens every hour to someone. Occasions of people rescuing people are part of the fabric of human experience. The compassionate deliverer is a special person.  The human being is a social animal, acquainted with compassion. When we sing the song and come to the verse, “I once was lost, but now I’m found” there is often a personal memory that goes with it. When we speak of first responders, when we speak of front line workers, we are talking about people in professions who are there for the sake and wellbeing of others. Others help in a steadier longstanding way, establishing systems whereby basic-needs help is established and distributed to people in need. We are vulnerable as humans, and in one way or another, we need help from others.

This week, the church calendar commemorates two saints associated with compassionate action and building systems of care: Margaret of Scotland and Elizabeth of Hungary. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, who died in 1093, could have emphasized any cause dear to her and seen it advanced. Her heart encouraged her to found schools, hospitals, and orphanages. She also sought to spell the violent feuding among Highland Clans. Elizabeth was a princess and philanthropist who died in 1231. She was concerned for the relief of the poor and the sick, and with her husband’s consent used her dowry money for their relief. She opened the royal granaries to feed the hungry during a famine and sold her jewels to establish a hospital where she, herself, nursed the sick.

The stories of Jesus about the Good Shepherd in the Fourth Gospel, chapter ten, and the Parable of the Lost Sheep in Luke seem to have roots in the Ezekiel passage coming up for us in the liturgy this Sunday. Ezekiel prophesies about God bringing back his scattered people to Israel. Observe how in this reading God is correlated to tireless shepherds who go about to bring home and tend to the sheep most in need:

Thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. —Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Best I can remember, years ago, in an interview with The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate was speaking about the inexhaustible mercy and love of God. The interviewer from the “Nobelity Project” was asking for clarification on whether we could conclude that God had no favorites. Tutu responded in the end, perhaps this is so, but added there is much in the Bible that reveals how the divine heart of God seems to have a special place for the poor and helpless, the hungry, the destitute, the widow, the prisoner and the orphan. The Ezekiel passage is one of those biblical revelations:

Notice also at the end of the passage there is a strong note of judgment. The implication is the sheep who are fat and strong are the exploitive ones among them, who have consumed much at the expense of the rest of the flock. As we head into the season of Advent, we learn and grow in the Word, recalling how God models love and compassion, and how God stands in judgment of people callous to those in greatest need, or who exploit them. We seek to learn from the tenderness, from the caring heart of God, and to seal our learning by means of action that weaves love into the experiences of life.

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling
Calling for you and for me…
Come home, come home
Ye who are weary come home
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling
Calling, "O sinner come home"