mercy

Generosity and Grace

/ JJS / 1 Comment

Santorini Skyline

Today’s readings (click to open in a new tab/window):
Psalms 67; 150, Genesis 13:2-18, Galatians 2:1-10, Mark 7:31-37

When Jesus healed people, he didn’t treat just their physical ailments; he also acknowledged them in a way that restored the dignity they had been denied. Charity and mercy should not be top-down experiences where the more fortunate look pitiably upon the less fortunate. They are more like the closing of a circuit through which grace flows and connects us all in the Spirit.

It’s easy to squeeze the grace out of our generosity. We insist on knowing who is worthy of it. We decide what is best for people without getting to know them. If it gets uncomfortable, we distance ourselves socially and emotionally from the people we are helping. Sometimes we dismiss the efforts of people who take a different approach than we do. Our focus can be too much on how charity makes us feel, rather than on the need we are meeting.

How Jesus healed a man of deafness and a speech impediment (a common combination, since it is difficult to mimic what we can’t hear) is a wonderful model for works we do in Christ’s name. First, he didn’t try to determine worth or blame, but accepted a person who came to him in faith. Next, instead of making a public show of his kindness, he took the man aside, thereby giving him a choice of whether to tell his own story. Then Jesus literally got his hands dirty and put them on the man in an intimate way, because sometimes love has to be messy. All the while Jesus was prayerful, but confident that God would guide him. He comprehensively addressed both the root of the problem (the man’s deafness) and the symptoms (his speech impediment). Finally, after word of his generosity spread, Jesus humbly gave the glory to God.

Grace-filled generosity does not insist on its own way, but responds to the needs of others. Unlike enabling, it empowers recipients to make their own decisions about what to do next. Once someone’s ability to hear (or eat or sleep warmly) is restored, they are free to speak the good news as they will.

Comfort: Sometimes we offer assistance, sometimes we receive it, and at all times we are worthy of dignity.

Challenge: Do some volunteer work that allows you to interact with the recipients of the work. Try to see them not as people who need something you have, but as people who are equally in need of God’s gifts as you are.

Prayer: Gracious and generous God, I will do my best to give as you would have me do, not as my fears and doubts would. Amen.

Discussion: When you give someone a gift, what expectations accompany it?

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Love Selfishly

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Readings: Psalms 50; 147:1-11, Amos 8:1-14, Revelation 1:17-2:7, Matthew 23:1-12

In the midst of adversity, we may find it difficult, almost impossible even, to practice love. Imagine being a widow or beggar during the time of Amos, when the religious leaders were “buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat*” (Amos 8:6). Consider what it must have been like for the faithful of Israel when their leaders put heavy burdens on the people while never inconveniencing themselves (Matt 23:4). Why would the common people bother loving their enemies when their own leaders preached righteousness and practiced hypocrisy? Can we imagine? Or do we call that “the evening news?”

Yet in both eras (and may we assume today as well?) through his prophets and the messiah God cried for redemption through justice, mercy, and charity – the practices of agape love.

One stumbling block to practicing this type of love is the notion that the recipient should deserve it. We may understand on an intellectual level that all people are deserving because they are children of God, but part of us chafes at the idea that not only have some people not earned it, but they have squandered any right to it. Vindictive ex spouses. Violent criminals. Hate mongering racists. Duplicitous politicians. In human terms, none of these people may merit mercy, but the divine demands it.

It can seem so very unfair. But is it?

What if the command to love our enemies – foreign, domestic, and familial – isn’t just about the dignity of our enemies? What if it is also about the state of our own souls? In Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche said “be careful when you fight monsters lest you become one.” Fred was no friend of Christianity, but he wasn’t wrong. When we allow feelings of fear or anger to override the convictions of our faith, and when we sacrifice those convictions of peace and love to protect our money, our homes, or even our lives, we have lost what God values most in us.

We love our enemies not only for their sake, but for our own.

* When the harvest was taken, the scraps were supposed to be left in the field to be gathered – or “gleaned” – by the poor and alien in the land.

Comfort: We are not burdened with determining who deserves our love.

Challenge: For an entire day, when you wish to complain about an enemy, instead say a silent prayer for them.

Prayer: O Lord, teach me to rely not on my limited capacity to love, but upon your unlimited promise of love. Amen.

Discussion: Do you pray for your enemies? If so, how? If not, why not?

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Hope. Always.

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Readings: Psalms 90; 149, Amos 5:18-27, Jude 17-25, Matthew 22:15-22

Ever since the world began, people have been predicting its end. For many that “end” is not so much a final obliteration, as a renewal when the evil, violence, and injustice will be swept away to make room for something better. The prophet Amos speaks of the day when God will “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” When we read headlines and watch the news, don’t we long for the same?

We can react to adversity with despair or with hope. While we may naturally tend toward one or the other, it is ultimately a choice. In the midst of suffering hope may seem futile or naive, but it has real consequences. Repeated studies show that a positive attitude promotes healing from illness and surgery. On a fundamental level, hope is essential to survival; hunger, thirst, and fear may seem like negatives, but they are hard-wired into us with an assumption that we will continue to live.

Though hope is more than a belief in continued existence. Despair also assumes existence but resigns us to inaction and victimhood, where hope spurs us to positive action. Hope makes charity possible, because it allows for positive change. Without the promise of hope could we even contemplate mercy?

In an age when tragedy around the world is broadcast into our homes 24 hours a day in high definition, hope can be hard to maintain. The truth is that on the whole violence in the world has been decreasing steadily for decades. Data and statistics are not necessarily comforting in the face of immediate crisis, so how do we work (and it is intentional work) to maintain hope? Minister and children’s television host Fred Rogers famously quotes his mother who told him the best thing to do in times of disaster is “look for the helpers” – people who move toward a tragedy to improve the situation. While it seems counterintuitive, could the Kingdom actually be ushered in when we move nearer to tragedy, where we are also nearer to mercy and charity? That is the end we hope for.

Comfort: We are closer to the promises of the God’s Kingdom every day.

Challenge: You can’t help everyone, but somewhere nearby there is a tragic situation waiting for you to inject hope into it. Find it and act.

Prayer: Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. (Psalm 80:7)

Discussion: Is hope something that comes naturally to you?

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Fair or Foul

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 54; 146, 2 Kings 5:19-27, 1 Corinthians 5:1-8, Matthew 5:27-37

Do you ever second-guess God?

Gehazi, the servant of the prophet Elishah, was not happy when Elijah accepted no gifts or payment for curing Naaman of leprosy.  “My master has let that Aramean Naaman off too lightly by not accepting from him what he offered. As the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something out of him.” Gehazi followed Naaman and pretended his master had asked for a tenant of silver and two sets of clothes to give to visiting prophets. A grateful Naaman threw in an extra talent and two servants. Gehazi hid away his loot, but Elishah knew what had happened. The displeased prophet declared Gehazi and his descendants would carry forever the leprosy that had afflicted Naaman.

We can become disgruntled when we think someone has gotten off too lightly. When success comes to someone who hasn’t paid the same dues we have, when punishment for wrongdoing is not as severe as we’d like, or when it feels like someone has “jumped line” and gotten something we “deserved” more, we may resent them, disparage them, or even try to sabotage them. Like Gehazi, we don’t always like the way our master shows mercy, and also like Gehazi we often think it’s our job to even the score when God has dropped the ball. Fair is fair, right?

Except Christ never teaches us to insist on fairness for ourselves, and certainly not to exact it at the expense of someone else. How God works in another person’s life is not the benchmark to which we should compare how God works in our lives. After all, some people have it worse than we do too, and we never seem to think fairness might involve moving downward toward those we believe have it worse instead of upward toward those we think have it better.

Mercy, by definition, is not fair. But if we claim to follow Christ, we must believe mercy is just – not only the mercy offered to us, but also the mercy offered to others, even mercy we would not ourselves bestow. When we accept that Christ has already redeemed us through the ultimate act of mercy, it becomes something we seek more to share than to acquire.

Comfort: You have been offered the ultimate mercy.

Challenge: When in doubt, ask.

Prayer: O divine master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console. Amen.

Discussion: How do you react to being treated unfairly?

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Collateral Mercy

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 97; 147:12-20, 1 Kings 18:1-19, Philippians 2:12-30, Matthew 2:13-23

Many action and suspense movies have something in common which, when you think about it, is pretty disturbing. As they follow the hero or heroine from one dangerous situation to the next – be it natural disaster, shootout, or car chase – the body count of disposable and background characters climbs. As long as our main character (and perhaps a love interest rendered increasingly inappropriate by the mounting death toll) survives to the end, we’re meant to feel good has triumphed. Granted these movies are fictional, but doesn’t entertainment reflect our cultural priorities?

Of course this trope was well established long ago. When God inflicts three years of drought and famine on the land to punish King Ahab, the story focuses on the prophet Elijah and the one widow who survives to shelter him while countless unnamed people (who neither married Jezebel nor worshipped foreign idols) die miserably. And after the magi decided not to tell Herod where the infant Jesus was, “he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under.” But Joseph has a dream to flee with his family to Egypt, so Jesus survives so … that ended well?

For the most part history remembers generals and not foot soldiers; sole survivors and not the unfortunate and numerous departed. You and I are probably going to die uncredited characters from central casting.

But the adult Jesus – the Jesus who ate with the drunks, the sinners, and the disreputable – had some good news for us extras: God loves us just as much as the featured players. Heck, he says it’s the least of us who will be first in the kingdom. The collateral damage and slaughtered innocents? God suffers along with every one of them. Does that make their suffering more fair? Not by human standards at least. But it does make it remarkable. Christ reveals (or possibly just reminds us of) a God whose mercy and compassion operate on both the largest and smallest of scales.

Whether we shape the fate of nations or barely survive day-to-day, God is with us.

Comfort: You and your suffering are not insignificant to God. 

Challenge: In entertainment and news, pay attention to who is affected but neglected.

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for loving the least of us as much as the greatest of us. Amen. 

Discussion: Most of the time do you feel like the hero/ine of your own story, or a player in someone else’s?

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Power Play

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lincoln

Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 54; 146, 1 Samuel 11:1-15, Acts 8:1b-13, Luke 22:63-71

After Saul was appointed by God through Samuel to be king, one of his first acts was to end the oppression of Nahash the Ammonite who had been terrorizing Israel by gouging out the right eyes of everyone who did not escape. After Saul defeated and scattered the Ammonites, the people called for the deaths of those who had initially opposed his reign. Saul declined, demonstrating he could be merciful in his power. Many years later, taking power for granted, Saul would become petty enough to maneuver David (of “versus Goliath” fame) into life-threatening situations for becoming too popular. Yet in the moment, and for many years afterward, he was a benevolent ruler who ruled wisely.

Centuries later another Saul, who would become the apostle Paul, used his power to persecute Christians because they represented a threat to the stability of the Jewish people under Roman occupation. This Saul’s power was fueled largely by a sense of righteousness, but somehow his dedication to serving his God did not translate into mercy until he was suddenly brought low.

After Jesus was arrested and brought before the council, they asked him if he was the Messiah. He replied “If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I question you, you will not answer.” When pressed further he said, “You say that I am.” They took that as a confession of heresy. The council used their power to twist perceptions and definitions so the outcome – regardless of the facts – was to their liking.

Power, seen through the eyes of Christ, is more responsibility than privilege. Using power (no matter how limited) in petty and cruel ways, even against our opponents, does not reflect the message of the Gospel. Retaliation is both a poor substitute for justice and difficult to reconcile with turning the other cheek. When we find ourselves in positions of power –elected office, social status,  work hierarchy, family dynamics, etc. – let us pray for strength to show mercy and restraint.

How blessed we are to have a savior who shows us the true meaning and best use of power.

Additional Reading:
For more about today’s passage from Acts, see Written Off?.
For another take on today’s passage from Luke, see No-Win Scenario.

Comfort: Being merciful is not a sign of weakness, but of strength.

Challenge: In ways large and small, we can have the upper hand in many relationships. Reflect on whether how you wield power, when you have it, spreads the Gospel.

Prayer: God of power and mercy, give me a heart like Christ.

Discussion: Have you ever been surprised to find out you had more power than you expected?

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Saying Grace

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 88; 148, Deuteronomy 26:1-11, 2 Corinthians 8:16-24, Luke 18:9-14

Jesus told a parable about two men praying at a temple, one a Pharisee – a citizen of high standing – and the other a tax collector – a Jew who worked for the occupying Roman empire. The Pharisee thanked God that he was not like sinners such as the tax collector, and reminded God that he fasted twice a week and tithed a tenth of his income. The tax collector humbly asked God for mercy. Jesus said the tax collector was the one who went home justified.

This parable is a bit of a paradox. We probably do want to try to live a life that looks more like the Pharisee’s than the tax collector’s. Avoiding sin and practicing spiritual disciplines – such as tithing and fasting –are good choices. Helping exploit the oppressed is not as good a choice. Yet according to Jesus, the state of our heart is at least as important as our actions.

Exalting ourselves is a good indicator we’ve forgotten to be grateful. The Pharisee could tithe and fast because he was in a comfortable position, yet he thanked God for nothing but his own (self-) righteousness. Someone without enough food or money would not have had the luxury of tithing and fasting. We don’t know anything about the tax collector’s circumstances, but we do know he was grateful for the mercy of his creator.

When the Jewish people reached the promised land, they began sacrificing the first fruits of each harvest to the Lord. As they did so, they recited the story of how God liberated them from slavery in Egypt and delivered them to the land of milk and honey. No matter how hard they toiled in the field, they did not take credit for their own well-being, but expressed gratitude to God for making it all possible. Somewhere along the line, the Pharisee seemed to have forgotten this important lesson.

Let’s remember where we came from. While we rejoice that God loves us, let’s also remember God’s love is a gift, not a reward for good behavior. We say grace before we eat, not after.

Comfort: Remember that God loves you.

Challenge: Remember that all you have comes from God.

Prayer: God, be merciful to me, a sinner!

Discussion: Are you ever tempted to compare yourself to other people? If so, how does it usually make you feel?

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One of these things is not like the others…

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 54; 146, Deuteronomy 12:1-12, 2 Corinthians 6:3-13 (6:14-7:1), Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Jesus asked where the other nine might be, but it seems he should have known; after all, he had told them to go to the priests for ritual cleansing. The one he praised for returning had actually failed to follow instructions. When someone is rewarded for breaking the rules, how does that make us feel?

When do we think it’s appropriate to break the rules? Here’s one possible answer: when it brings us closer to Christ. In the case of the Samaritan leper, that closeness included physical proximity. Technically, before getting a clean bill of health from the priest, he should not have approached Jesus, let alone gotten close enough to fall at his feet. Of the ten, he alone seemed to understand it was his relationship with God and Christ, not his adherence to instructions, which made him whole and presentable.

Don’t let anyone’s expectations stop you from rushing toward the love of God. Not when they treat you like an outsider. Not when their rules are designed to hold you back. Not even when your own expectations leave you feeling unworthy. No matter how much you think the odds are stacked against you, throw yourself at the feet of that love. Your faith will make you well.

Comfort: God loves you regardless of anyone’s rulebook.

Challenge: You have to be willing to accept that love.

Prayer: Merciful God, I throw all my cares, praise, and gratitude at your feet. Amen.

Discussion: Has anyone ever made you feel unworthy of God’s love? If so, how have you overcome those feelings?

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The Letter Kills

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 103; 150, Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14, 2 Corinthians 3:1-9, John 12:27-36a

Victor Hugo’s novel (and popular musical) Les Miserables opens as hero Jean Valjean completes a 19-year prison sentence that began with stealing a loaf of bread for his starving sister. The yellow letter he must carry impairs his ability to rebuild his life, until a merciful encounter propels him into a new identity. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne has a child out of wedlock. She and her daughter are forever outcast because of the scarlet “A” (for adultery) she must wear as a constant declaration of her sin.

In both stories, the heroes committed the original crimes, yet we root for them. We feel the injustice of their disproportionate and lifelong punishments. Yet somehow as a society our fictional compassion is divorced from our compassion for real people. We recognize the unjust legalism of the yellow and scarlet, but don’t quite make the connection to modern equivalents.

In most states job applications include a question about felony convictions. Honesty dramatically reduces the chances a former felon will even get an interview. “But wait,” you may think, “don’t employers have a right to know?” Maybe that’s too small a question. Of course child molesters shouldn’t be hired by a daycare, but if the system is meant to rehabilitate, why does it heap obstacles in front of a forty year old person who was foolish at twenty, has done their penance, and now seeks gainful employment? What separates them from Jean and Hester? Motivation? A catchy tune?

Forgiveness and relentless punishment are incompatible. If we argue it’s a civil matter and outside religious purview, then we have no business introducing Christian values into other civil matters. If we argue it’s a matter of risk, we have lost sight that following Christ always invites risk. We are meant to be outsiders, challenging the status quo of the empire. As Paul told the Corinthians: “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

In all matters, let us seek the life-giving Spirit. Justice seeks more than punishment – it seeks to heal the starving and the outcast before punishment appears on the page.

Comfort: No matter who seeks to punish you, Christ seeks to forgive you.

Challenge: Read this short article about removing the “felony checkbox” in Minnesota. If it raises questions, search for more to read.

Prayer: Spirit of God, I will seek life in you for myself and others. Amen.

Discussion: The “felony box” is just on example of how our penal system is at odds with mercy and rehabilitation. Can you think of others?

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Good Samaritan

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 143; 147:12-20, Micah 5:1-4, 10-15, Revelation 9:1-12, Luke 10:25-37

The parable of the Good Samaritan is so famous, a category of laws has been named after it. It actually began with a lawyer who tested Jesus by asking how to achieve eternal life. Since one of the criteria was loving your neighbor as yourself, the lawyer tried to justify himself by asking: “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus then told the familiar story: a man is left for dead by thieves; a priest and a Levite (his people) pass him by; a Samaritan man bandages him up, takes him to an inn, and pays for his care. The now-familiar twist in this story is that Samaritans were bitter enemies of the Jews, but when Jesus asked who had been a good neighbor, the lawyer was forced to admit: “The one who showed him mercy.”

He must hot have been a great lawyer, because he let Jesus off the hook without an answer to the question. He asked: “Who is my neighbor?” and Jesus told him a story about being a good neighbor, then followed it up with: “Go and do likewise.”

Jesus skillfully redirected the lawyer away from the wrong question … and toward the right answer. The man was really asking: “What’s the minimum number of people I need to love?” Instead of listing criteria he could exploit to exclude people, Jesus gave him a parable which taught him he needed to worry less about defining who his neighbors were, and more about redefining himself as a neighbor to all.

Are we showing neighborly mercy? Here’s a hint: if we show it only to people we feel have earned it, the answer is “No.” We can ask what people deserve, why we are being unfairly burdened, or how much is enough, but Jesus may not bother with our questions. He cares more that we listen to his answers. He wants us to redefine ourselves by those answers – to be a neighbor even when we are also an enemy. Merciful love is not a prize to be won; it is a grateful response to a God who loved us first.

Comfort: You don’t have to earn God’s love.

Challenge: People shouldn’t have to earn your love.

Prayer: Merciful and loving God,  may my heart, my words, and my deeds be a reflection of the infinite love you have shown me. Amen.

Discussion: Has someone you consider an enemy/rival ever surprised you with an act of kindness?

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