Compassion....and Hope

We are going to return the the Living the Question2 series for the first week of the new year. We're going to view and discuss chapter 19, "Compassion: The Heart of Jesus' Ministry." Here are a couple of quotes from the reading to set the tone:

"A student of anthropologist Margaret Mead once asked her to describe the earliest sign of civilization in a given culture. The young student expected the noted scholar of cultures to say that clay pots or crude axes or grinding stones were the first clues of civilization. Dr. Mead’s answer was 'a healed femur,' the human thighbone. She went on to explain that a healed femur indicated that someone cared. Someone had to do the injured person’s hunting and gathering until the leg healed. The evidence of compassion, she said, is the first sign of civilization."

Pretty good, that. And from Harold Beck in The Joys of Liberation Preaching:

"Albert Schweitzer said, 'Concern for people is the beginning of hope.' And when I find somebody hopeless I conclude that they are not very much concerned about anybody. Isn’t it funny that the great harbingers of hope in our time have been the (Mother) Teresas, and the (Martin Luther) Kings, and the (Oscar) Romeros, and the Gandhis? Good heavens, of all the people who had a right to resign from hope -- maybe Schweitzer was right, 'Concern for other people is the beginning of hope.'"

Please join us at 9:45. You'll be very Welcome. As always, excellent childcare is provided.