Bellbrook United Methodist Church – Our Vision is to know God and to serve others.

Sunday Worship (October 13th)

This week, we are going to look through the lens of compassion at how our world tends to stigmatize different groups of people. Not only is this a major problem in our world today, but it was a problem during Jesus' earthly life as well. There were Sadducees, Pharisees, Jews, and Gentiles. All were stigmatized and rarely got along with one another. They argued about their beliefs, especially their beliefs in God.

Jesus' own disciples were radically different in their politics. There was a zealot and a tax collector— two very different people with differing points of view, not only in their politics, but also in their religious opinions. The same things plague our world today, and sometimes, we just want to say, "Can't we all just get along"?

At the Leawood Campus of the Church of the Resurrection, the third right of the stained glass window, which can be seen at https://sacredspaces.cor.org/leawood/window/, is a picture of the church in heaven. You'll see Orthodox Catholics and Protestants, as well as Methodists, Pentecostals, and Baptists, all looking to Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

The point is not so much to make the case for inclusivism. However, running into people from other denominations and religions in heaven wouldn't surprise me. I have often thought that heaven will have a nice mix of people and that perhaps Christianity is an easier way to God. However, that's not the point. The point is to make the case for love. This love is not a warm, fussy feeling. It may entail that kind of deep friendship, but it is a love of actions, blessing, showing kindness, offering care for the other, and moral love. It's love in action. Compassionate love focuses on the common bond we share as a part of humanity. It searches for the image of God in others and on the commonalities we share rather than what divides us.

Come to worship this Sunday to learn more about compassion and how compassion joins us to one another and ultimately gives us peace.

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Message From The Tandana Foundation