Red Letters Only

"How'r ya doin'?" "What's up?" "How's it goin'?" "Cool." "Sweet." "Sick." "Whatever." "Loser."

Our use of language grows more and more casual. There are lots of reasons for that, from the digital shorthand that we use in email and texting to the lack of prolonged conversation that used to be prevalent 50+ years ago. I'm not saying it's good or bad; it just is. But there comes a time to be more precise. To utilize the power in words and sentence structure and clear thought is almost a lost art.

In preparation for the message series, "The Scarlet Letters," I read from Luke 9:51 to the end and read only the red letters - obviously, you need a red-letter edition of the Bible. Of course, you miss out on some conversation and setting and the like, but it's a new look at what Jesus said on his way to the cross in Jerusalem.

I noticed several things that I had not really seen previously. Certainly, the tone is urgent and intense. Imagine you were going to go on a trip and you knew you would not return. What would you say to your kids? Your friends? Your colleagues? Your neighbors? I'm guessing that whatever you said there would be a kind of focus and purpose in your communication that is not usually there.

This is what you see as Jesus encounters a wide variety of people and situations on his way to Jerusalem and the cross. At times he comes across as very harsh. Other times he's confrontive. Almost always he's pressing the issue: "do you believe and what are you going to do now?" At the same time, Jesus is shown as very compassionate in Luke. He's a friend to the outcast. He gives people the benefit of the doubt. He offers a new start.

So, it's interesting to see who it is that Jesus is harsh toward and who it is that he's compassionate toward. Interestingly, he's often angriest and most confrontive with the religious folk. And the more self-righteous the religious folk, the harsher Jesus is. In contrast, Jesus is gentlest with people stricken with leprosy, in absolute poverty, or one considered a social outcast.

One summer I worked at the Durham (North Carolina) Urban Ministry Center. It was a coalitian of various churches and agencies that centralized their efforts in one building. But my assignment was a bit vague. My supervisor, whom I rarely saw, told me on my first day that my title and job description was to be "chaplain to the homeless." What a summer. I basically hung out from 8 am until 5 pm talking to whoever wanted to talk. I had no connection to a specific agency, which was good in the sense that all I could do was direct people to one office or another. This didn't stop people from asking me for money out of my own pocket, but it did create a different dynamic between the clients and me. Virtually everyone I dealt with were either mentally ill, alcoholic, drug abuser, or some combination of the three.

What about your experiences? How have you been able to know when to be compassionate and when to hold someone accountable? Maybe relate a time that you received compassion - what difference did it make to you? Let's compare notes.