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| "Good Samaritan" - Francois-Leon Sicard |
Tune: RESCUE
This simple hymnline lifted from an old familiar gospel song
is a pretty good description of what it means to be compassionate.
I grew up in a church where we sang this one briskly like a John Philip Sousa march. Until I used David
Schwoebel’s setting of it near the end of my full-time music ministry, I had never
paid much attention to the text. That is one of our ‘sins against the hymnal’:
we just don’t take note of the words.
Fanny Crosby definitely had a way with words, and hidden
deep within many of her gospel-songs we find these kernels of truth that help
us understand certain of aspects of our faith put into words that we can
understand more clearly if we take the time to zero-in on the separate phrases –
like this one.
Weeping over those whose lives have gone wrong, who have
stumbled and fallen, whose blumbers have sent them down a negative pathway –
that’s how the Spirit of Christ within us reacts; we feel compassion on those
struggling ones.
But for compassion to be effective, we must move beyond the
feelings to action. We have to stop what we’re doing and give them a hand; we
have to lift up those over whom we weep.
If you need a story to help you understand this concept,
read Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. Lots of people saw the
down-and-out ditched man, saying to themselves, “Bless his heart.” But the man
from Samaria had compassion on him and did something about it.
May this hymnline prompt us to practice compassion – not as
a feeling, but as a natural active response.
Hear familiar hymn sung
by men’s group
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