Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: Compassion Ministries, Student Workbook, SW16

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D O I N G J U S T I C E A N D L O V I N G M E R C Y : C O M P A S S I O N M I N I S T R I E S

our brothers (and our sisters!) keepers, called to care for one another, and not consume one another in our comparisons, jealousies, hatreds, and violence. To be intimate with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is to care deeply for others, for God is love. The one claiming to know God who does not love, does not know God at all (1 John 4.7-8). For those of us serving Christ in the city we must embrace this truth with all our hearts. A vital, growing, intimate walk with God will always express itself in specific, particular, and consistent acts of love and mercy to our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and even our enemies. Are we our brother’s keeper? Certainly, yes, if in fact we have been redeemed in the blood of Jesus Christ. Listen to the Apostle John’s commentary on Cain and Abel: 1 John 3.11-15 - For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. [12] We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. [13] Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. [14] We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. [15] Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Let us embrace the new commandment of our Lord, to love one another. Indeed, we are truly our brother’s keeper. After reciting and/or singing the Nicene Creed (located in the Appendix), pray the following prayer: Holy God, you confound the world’s wisdom in giving your kingdom to the lowly and the pure in heart. Give us such a hunger and thirst for justice and perseverance in striving for peace, that by our words and deeds the world may see the promise of your kingdom, revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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Nicene Creed and Prayer

~ Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The Theology and Worship Ministry Unit. Book of Common Worship . Louisville, Ky.: Westminister/John Knox Press, 1993. p. 209