A time of Advent reflection
The Spirit of the LORD God has taken control of me!
The LORD has chosen and sent me to tell the oppressed the good news,
To heal the brokenhearted, and to announce freedom for prisoners and captives.
This is the year when the LORD God will show kindness to us and punish our enemies.
Isaiah 61: 1-2
Reflect on the word COMPASSION for a few moments.
In worn and threadbare clothes he shuffled his way along the busy street. Sometimes he’d pause to gaze at a brightly decorated shop window. He’d shuffle quickly past people dressed in designer clothes. Sometimes he’d stop and look into the lifeless eyes of figures in an illuminated nativity scene. The holiday season meant nothing to him. The slogans “goodwill” “peace on earth” “have a merry Christmas” floated past him unheard. The holidays were to be endured before the streets came back to normal. Like a bent reed he stumbles in silence along the brightly lighted streets, and disappears into anonymity.
Why is it so hard to respond when people blend into the anonymity of hopelessness? What can we do to help? Perhaps we feel sorry when we watch a news item on TV and look into the eyes of displaced people, especially the eyes of children. Does it prompt us to send a contribution to one of the agencies doing relief work? Do our feelings of compassion evaporate when we get caught up in daily routines?
I remember reading somewhere that there is grace in compassion. I need to think about that. Perhaps God is asking me to show compassion as a gift I can offer to those I know who need my help. I wish I knew what to do.
God of Caring and Compassion, touch me and show me your compassion that I may learn to care.
© Ranjini Wickramaratne-Rebera
For a number of years, our dear friend Ranjini Rebera wrote Biblical reflections for the use of Gungahlin Uniting Church and others, usually for Advent and Lent. We were privileged to receive these, as Ranjini had a working history of writing and teaching on a global stage. Each time she completed the considerable work on one of these studies for us she would announce firmly, ‘That’s it. That is the last one I’m writing. No more. End of story!’ But as Advent or Lent came around again she would start hinting that she’d had an idea for a reflection – and she would write another one.
When she completed a Reflection for Lent 2021, we were not to know that this really was the last one. Ranjini died on 13 October 2021. We miss her intellect, her leadership, her vivid personality, her artistic gifts, her deep faith and her pastoral heart. We have lost some colour from our world.
The Gungahlin Uniting Church Worship Team, where Ranjini served for several years, offers Ranjini’s study material, first produced in 2015, as we give thanks for her life shared among us.