
Blessed for Good
We are blessed for good. We are blessed to bless others. Part of our challenge is learning how to answer the question: what does it look like to bless those who have not earned our blessing.
The Series So Far
We’ve been exploring what it means to live a meaningful, joyful life in stories from Jesus’ life and ministry. The wisemen illustrated how Gd can lead us with Joy. Jesus’ Baptism with the words You are my child, I love you dearly, You make me happy proclaimed that God knows and names us in love, and shapes us in that love. John’s beginning of miracles reflected God Persistently calls us to feast and delight in God’s Presence.
January is usually a slow time in the church
January is usually a slow time in the church. Except, two weeks ago even as John, in our passage, proclaimed wind and fire, sections of Los Angeles burned, driven by the Santa Anna winds. And this week, we have two lectionary passages about preaching sermons that are not well received… as the other coast is burning driven by a sermon and blistering winds of debate.
What our Passages share
When I planned this series, I pulled in a second lectionary reading for this week. The parallels are striking. People return home. We are at the center of community life. Nehemiah, and probably Jesus, have been asked to read from scriptures. Both go on to interpret the words.
Very different reactions that share one thing
And, the reactions to the two sermons are starkly different. Nehemiah preaches and the people react in guilt and mourning. Jesus preaches and, if you read on you realize they’re wondering who does he think he is. They’re indignant that he’s gone outside his lane.
Those very different reactions do share one thing with each other. The sermons that are remembered in the bible are often not the ones that leave the listeners comfortable. Again and again we see prophets and preachers speak to leaders to call them to love, grace, mercy, hope, faith.
How the Preachers were Heard
Words about love, grace, mercy, hope, faith –no matter how gently delivered– when we are willing to hear them can bring the reaction we see in Nehemiah: guilt and mourning. Realization about how far we still have to journey. And, that is the point, the preacher’s challenge is the human inclination to say I am who I am and shut down.
Words about love, grace, mercy, hope, faith –no matter how gently delivered– when we are willing to hear them bring the reaction that Jesus sees. Multiple prophets were thrown in wells. John the Baptizer was beheaded. Jesus spoke rightly when he said a prophet is not welcomed in their own land. He might have added their own synogogue or cathedral.
The Way is Narrow and Hard
When Jesus returned home, his words were hard. There had been self-identified Messiahs before. In fact, it hadn’t been that long since the Romans destroyed a town four miles away to put down a revolt led by someone proclaiming themselves Messiah. Faith can costs us. Jesus warned us that the way is narrow and hard. The way is not always easy. Sometimes, rejecting the message and its messenger is easier.
There were many words spoken about unity in what you could think of as our nation’s synogogue this week but the ones about Mercy are the ones that are being debated and judged.
Mercy for Dummies, part 1
One person said what they needed was mercy for dummies. I knew a pastor who used a traffic stop to explain justice, grace and mercy. I’ve been stopped for speeding. One time I was lectured by the judge and paid a big fine and was very very careful to avoid getting any more tickets. This justice. Another time, the officer pulled me over … and I was still laughing from the comedian I had been listening to. He ended up letting me go with a warning. I’m perfectly clear I was speeding… a bit… and a bit more … and a bit more. I had earned that ticket. But I received mercy.
We are in a Methodist church, a church in the John Wesley tradition, so an analogy like this goes on to speak of grace. But, I have spoken of grace before and I will speak of grace again. This day is a day to speak of Mercy.
Mercy for Dummies, part 2
When I told that analogy, I did not tell it as the police officer or the judge. Jesus spoke of a man who begged the king for mercy. He had failed the king. He had cost the king an amount of money that only billionaires and leaders of nations have ever dealt with. And the king granted him mercy. Then the man went an demanded someone else pay him back a small sum.
In each case, it was the person with wealth or power that was deciding if they would grant mercy. In our passage, Jesus he has come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, he has come to proclaim the Jubilee, a year in which the rich are called to forgive the debts of the poor and the powerful to release their slaves.
The question Jesus doesn’t answer: When is the time for mercy
But, here’s the thing Jesus doesn’t answer in his call: how do you decide who deserves mercy? What does mercy look like in your life? Jesus does not give us easy answers to this questions. But he does not free us from answer the question in our minds, in our hearts, in our souls, and in our actions.
Is it those you already support and favor? Your allies and friends? Or, is it the least of these, the ones who are not like you, the ones who have not done anything to earn your favor. The ones who, from your perspective have earned the punishment that you are handing out? Do you grant it to everyone? Do you grant it to no one? Do you weigh the specifics of the case?
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt among this people
But, there are people this week who are afraid not because of the crimes they have committed but because of who they are or where they are. They are our neighbors. They are our family members.
We Practice Mercy for Ourselves, part 1
But Mercy is not something we do merely for the least of these. Mercy is something we do for ourselves. One of the most famous passages in the Bible is John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. with continues in the next verse: Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world. Mercy is at the very heart of Gd’s mission in the world. Jesus proclaims Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
His brother James is more blunt: There will be no mercy in judgment for anyone who hasn’t shown mercy. Mercy overrules judgment.
Blessed for Good
To say Mercy is something we do for ourselves not just as some sort of get out of jail transaction. When the people hear Nehemiah’s words and they feel guilt and mourning. The realization has swept the crowd that the way that they have not fully honored who they are as a people. Welcome the stranger because you have been a stranger. Extend Mercy because you have been shown Mercy. Love Gd with all of who you are. And love your neighbor as yourself. And Nehemiah knows that that is aspirational. That learning to fully embody that way is a lifelong journey towards perfection. And that, along the way the journey to perfection is going to seeing the very places where we do not live up to our aspirations, the ways we are not the people we have been called to be. And, when we realize we have not arrived … yet …. feeling guilt and mourning is not wrong. Hold on to those realizations. Let them call you on as a people to the finish line and find a way to have joy. You have not been blessed with realization to weep. You have been blessed for Good. You have been blessed that you may pass those blessings on to others, pursuing justice, granting mercy and walking humbly –together– with your Gd.