Jenna Wimmer
from A Pilgrimage of Unfolding Grace Hosted by Jenna Wimmer
If our first calling is based on the solidarity of “me too”, then the invitation in our second calling is to those with whom we don’t naturally empathize. There is opportunity for growth outside our tribal allegiances and prejudices when we cross the border into Samaria. The challenge Jesus puts before us is to lay claim to another type of compassion that is no less powerful - the ability to come alongside someone and to say, “I have no idea what that’s like”. It is a chance to learn solidarity that is not based on mere understanding, but presence. I think it is problematic when we limit our compassion to being able to see ourselves in the eyes of others beyond the foundation human experience. If we do so, we risk loving people with an agenda to make them more palatable to us, to get them to be more like us, rather than seeing them encounter unconditional love that might open them to meeting Jesus. Samaritans offend us, but in doing so, they invite us to shed some of our biases in order to love better. In this way, enemies might become friends and our capacity to love is enlarged. Today's episode is a conversation with Jenna Wimmer, a dear friend and elder in our community. Jenna has devoted her life to care for people with HIV/AIDS, among other things. What I appreciate about her story is how the Lord has given her a burden for people that, at first glance, she has no inherent connection to. She is living out the call to journey into Samaria, in which we learn to love people who are not like us.
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