Lord, Have Mercy

The problem is like the situation when the doctor comes out and tells the family that yes, he could cut out the cancer, but unfortunately the operation would kill the patient.

What should God do, with us?

Should it be that drastic?

A particularly noxious incident happened in May 1945, at the end of WWII, when the Allies liberated the concentration camp at Nordhausen in Germany, where thousands of Hungarian Jews had been worked to death in a munitions factory.

A young American soldier, Stephen Shields reported:

“A few hundred prisoners were all that remained, and they were walking skeletons, who had not even the strength to speak.

When the liberators opened the doors of the camp, the prisoners silently moved toward the gate and began walking toward the town.

The only sound they made was the rustling of their long, ragged coats on the the grass of the fields.

The ghostly prisoners encountered two German teenagers, each about 15 years old, blond, fair, well-fed, and wearing the uniform of the Hitler Youth.

When the teens saw the starving Jews, incredibly they began to nudge each other, make rude comments, and laugh uproariously.

I was dumbfounded and enraged.

It was as if the devil himself were hurling a final insult at those tormented people.

I turned to my lieutenant and 'Sir! What should we do with these two idiots? Shoot them?'”

What, indeed?

Isn't it righteous anger that we feel at those rude, insensitive clods of teenagers, even in defeat acting as though they ruled the life and death of anyone in their path.

And what should God feel, if not righteous anger, in the second half of the eighth century BC when Israel was gobbling up the good things that God was entrusting to their care, and at the same time laughing God to scorn.

Oh sure, they were mouthing words of regret from time to time, but it was all an act, a calculation to fool God and get yet more goodies.

“Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he that has torn, and he will bind us up.... He will come to us like the spring rains that water the earth.”

We hear how those words could be spoken with sincerity, but also how they can mask insolence.

And God responds through the prophet:

“What shall I do with you O Ephraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes away early.

I have killed them by the words of my mouth.

For I desire steadfast love, and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

O Israel, who thought you could fool God with insincere words and actions without good intent, how foolish you were in those days!

If only we would learn from the mistakes of that generation!

“What shall I do with you, O people?”

God says, “What shall I do with you?”

Should God affirm the prayer of Jonah and destroy the city of Nineveh?

Shall God spurn Abraham who bargains with God for the life of the city of Lot? (Gen. 18)

Shall God loose the four horses of the Apocalypse and let war, famine, pestilence, and terror run rampant? (Rev.6)

I'm not really that bad, am I? are we?

Well,....yes, we are.

As we say at the beginning of worship, quoting from 1 John:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1Jn 1:8)

If God were a God of justice, we know what the result would be; everlasting death and separation from God.

We would try to flee from such a God, one who is absolutely just, giving us exactly what we deserve...which is....nothing!

Everything that we touch we tend to mess up or have some problem.

The radical wing of today's environmentalists seem to be very happy to point this out, but their solution is to say that we cannot or should not touch anything.

To me it sounds like in their thinking, the only good forest is one without any human contact at all. etc. etc.

The charge in Genesis 1 is quite different: we are given the responsibility to manage the creation around us. (Gen 1:28)

We can and do make mistakes, but the responsibility is still there.

For the sake of Jesus, divine and human at one and the same time, there is creation.

For the sake of Jesus, this gift and responsibility is not taken away from us.

For the sake of Jesus, born into a human family and a web of human relationships, there is community into which we are born in Holy Baptism.

For the sake of Jesus, on account of Jesus, for the love of Jesus, God is not a God of justice, but of mercy.

Because we are connected with this Lord Jesus, because we are called by him and loved by him, because in his unfathomable love he desires to have community, communication, communion with us, God does not destroy us as we deserve,

but instead picks us up from the messes we make and gives us yet another chance, today.

1.“Matthew, you there, sitting at the tax booth ....Follow me!,” he says.

2.“You, tax collectors and others that have been thrown out of the synagogue, or deserve to be thrown out, because of what you have said or done, I'm eating with you today.”

3.“You, Pharisees, who know so much and complain all the time, here is your chance to go back and study the scriptures again

...and this time arrive at a different interpretation, one that calls for humility from you, acknowledgment of the sin that permeates everything that humans do, and your dependence on the God who continues to give good gifts.......you Pharisees, Follow me! I can use your kind of determination, if we can re-channel it in appropriate ways.”

4.“You, synagogue leader who is not depending on your own erudition, but simply calling on me for help, I'm coming to your house, and your daughter will live now,

as a sign that God's kingdom is breaking into the world through what I say and do.”

5. “You, woman whose prayer is not in words but only in the action of touching my cloak, I hear you and your kind of prayer, too.

You are healed, restored to the community that threw you out,

so that you can be one to tell others that the gift of faith is available to them as well.”

“You, man, woman, child of St. Mark's: each of you are like one or more of your ancestors in the faith.

1. Some are proud of what they have done, and like the Pharisees, now are given the opportunity to trust not in those accomplishments, but in the Lord God who makes them possible.

2. Some can't seem to get a prayer into words, and yet they are hanging close by, like the woman who touched the hem. That action is a kind of word, an acted-out prayer, so fear not; at the right time the word will come to you, too.

3. Some have messed things up badly, in personal relationships, in abuse of the creation entrusted to our care, in a portion of things that are publicly known, and others that are secretly hidden for shame.

Like the tax collectors and sinners we hear about in today's gospel, we are welcome at the table, too; the table hosted by Jesus himself with lots of people assisting.

4. Some here today may be like Matthew of old, who is called by Jesus and doesn't really know what will happen but who jumps into this assembly that becomes the church, and who takes on a role much too large for him, apostle, and yet by the grace of God, grows into that role.

I read once that during the Middle Ages, when a young man joined a monastic community he might be issued a robe that was too large, so that he might be dragging it around a bit awkwardly.

But soon he would grow into it, even as he was growing in understanding and practice of that specific style of Christian life in the monastery.

Soon it would fit him just right.

It is all possible because of the nature of God:

In deciding to be God,

He has chosen to lay aside the anger upon which we would act, if we were God,

In deciding to be God,

He has chosen to be patient with us beyond measure,

In deciding to be God,

He has chosen to be unreasonably merciful to us, for the sake of Jesus.

That ancient plea of the church Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy, is both a plea, an urgent prayer, and also a statement of confidence.

Let them be honest and earnest words; let them be forthright and true words;

Mercy, Lord, and the Lord is merciful.

Both translations are right.

Thanks be to God, that

There's a wideness in God's mercy, For the love of God is broader

Than the measures of our mind.

[LBW 290.1,3]

Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.