“MERCY, MERCY, MERCY”
Saint Luke 6. 36-42
Fourth Sunday after Trinity: 17 July Anno Domini 2011
The Revd Fr JW Watson S.S.P.
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy…is not Cannonball Adderley's 1966 hit-song. It is Jesus the Merciful Savior of you miserable un-merciful people. It is the Thrice Holy Merciful Godhead of Father, Son + and Holy Spirit.
Ancient Greeks and modern Americans sometimes limit the definition of mercy to only an emotion caused by the observation of undeserved affliction which can, but need not, cause an attendant display of assistance. But the word is not a feeling. Mercy is a substantive condition and ACTION. It is noun which always, ALWAYS produces a verb.
Christ says to His own: "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful."
This statement of the Lord's is of course a statement of Law. You are not merciful as your God is merciful. God forgives pagans and causes the rain to fall on them as well as upon His own flock. The Lord forgives His enemies and adversaries-even forgiving those who tortured Him and nailed Him to the tree. The Lord forgave the world while on said cross. This Mercy, His Mercy, was no mere emotion of sympathy or empathy. The Christ was the only One Who ever felt someone's pain. He truly felt your pain, and suffered your punishment. Christ Crucified is your Mercy for Jesus is Mercy personified.
You are not merciful. You might "feel" badly for people or situations but you are unwilling to truly forgive and help those who are your opponents and troublers. You are especially unwilling to help those who are bad people and who have done bad things. This is why the Law kills you.
Dr. Luther in one of his 1532 homilies on this morning's text makes some observations which I submit are not altogether helpful or entirely accurate. Luther maintains that mercy, forgiving others and forbearing the taking of retribution or "pay-back," is only something to be done between social "equals." The Reformer says that letting the insult, or misdeed, or malfeasance pass is to be done only between worker and worker, prince and prince, schoolmate and schoolmate but not between authority figure and subordinate. Now to be sure, it would not be loving mercy to let a murderer continue to murder. A murderer has to be kept from repeating his social destruction. It would not be loving mercy for a Mother or Father to passively let their child go on lying and cheating. But perhaps the great Reformer is letting his own society's historical constructs and controversies color a bit the truths of Christ's transforming Mercy for all men, all enemies, all Pharisees, Scribes, Turks, and Jews. The good Doctor knew of course the parable of the Merciful Lord forgiving his own subordinate who owes him the huge monetary debt. Luther also knew the story of the lowly Samaritan showing, BEING, mercy upon his own social better. And likewise Luther and all of us are constantly made aware of the real King of Kings showing mercy in Scripture to the utter dregs: lepers, cripples, mutes, prostitutes, and thieves. Luther is correct when he harshly criticizes, by way of preaching the Lord's Law, people just like you, for forgiving only those people whom you already like, respect, or are related to by family or disposition. He is correct that mercy is for a much wider circle than those individuals who, for the most part, do things the way we want them done. Mercy forgives, forgets, requires no punishment for punishment's sake, and then affirmatively helps and assists.
God is Mercy because God is Love. Mercy is Love in motion. Mercy is the cool-flowing streams of Good Works which flow from the source of Love.
"…As your Father also is merciful" says Jesus, which gives the answer to the relationship and the resulting activities. God the Father loved His creatures (His children), all of them, so much, and in such a way, that He sent His own, beloved, uncreated, only-begotten, and eternal Son, into the Flesh and Blood of fallen man, to obey and die on their behalf and in their place. God's Mercy was such that He not only forgave you, and the other bad people, your sins and transgressions, but He actually covered them all over and washed them away with a flow of scouring and cleansing Blood-His Blood. Mercy is not punishment, not even JUST punishment, but atoning sacrifice. The Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant had blood poured upon it to cover the Law, to purge away sin. Jesus your New Testament Mercy Seat had His blood cover you and wash away your sin.
So-- you think people, bad people, lazy people, undisciplined people, people that have never been taught right from wrong, people that have always "skated" or avoided consequences, are GETTING AWAY with crimes and misdemeanors and sins and trespasses, and you just want them to get what's justly coming to them? YOU are that person in God's courtroom of Divine Justice. And thank God, He did not give you Justice but He gave you Mercy-Jesus Christ.
Your "old-Adam" nature is just not hard-wired to be merciful. You constantly self-justify your desires to see people punished, and made to pay for their damaging acts. And yes, society does need to reign in the destroyers. But each and every Christian as Christian; each and every one of you as Jesus' own brothers and sisters shows forth, by the power of the Spirit, your new blood-line and new family resemblance. You, because of the forgiveness you've been given, forgive those who trespass against you. You, because of the Blood which has been poured over you, because of the Blood which you drink (and will be drinking in a moment), no longer have "blood-lust" for vengeance because the Blood of the Lamb has taken away your murderous rage. Your being forgiven empowers you to love your neighbor, your enemy, and your persecutors with the Love of God in Christ Jesus.
The next time you are apt to fume with rage and boil over with indignation and resentment over some "wrong" that you see inflicted upon yourself or your "world-view," the Holy Ghost will bathe you in Christ and His Word. You will not demand an eye-for-an-eye or pre-emptive strikes; you will not require maximum punishments and "pounds of flesh." You have the Newness of Jesus in you by faith. You believe, teach and confess that your own Gethsemane betrayal of God has been forgiven. Your own denial that you even know Jesus has been wiped away. Your own murdering, adultery, gossiping, stealing, and coveting has been atoned for. Your own spitting, whipping, nailing, jeering, and blaspheming of the innocent Lamb has been paid for. It is finished. You are free and loved because of Mercy. In Jesus, you too show mercy.
They know you are Christians by your Love-Your Jesus.
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy-
In the Name of The Father + and of The Son and of The Holy Ghost