Giving and receiving mercy

I only have conversation and looking the person in the eye to try to determine if the story the person tells is true or a yarn that is spun to elicit maximum dollars from a gullible sap (that's me.)

Many of the needs are far greater than we could ever handle with our small fund.

Others are within range, but I just don't believe the tale.

Sometimes I'm sure I'm fooled when I do believe a story and pay a certain bill.

Promises are often given that just as soon as their situation turns around, we'll see lots of money flowing back to us, but very seldom is any of the money repaid.

Laura in the office tries to help me keep the paperwork straight and keep track of those whom we have helped over the years.

I'm the only person authorized to disburse these funds; it's all up to me.

There are times that I would rather not deal with another situation; I'm tired, I'm busy, I'm grumpy, and I don't want to try to think and analyze another problem.

On behalf of the congregation, should I bother?

Can I, should I, walk away? I have so many other things that I could be doing.

Why did the Samaritan stop and help the man in the ditch?

Let's propose some possibilities:

--Perhaps it was just an impulse, with no particular reason.

--Perhaps is was because of his upbringing to be a helpful person.

--Perhaps it was because of his identification with he man in the ditch; it is a dangerous road and the person in trouble could have been the Samaritan if he had been traveling a little earlier on that road.

--Perhaps it was because of outrage that these tragedies keep happening, and someone needs to do something about it.

--Perhaps it was because he had the financial and emotional resources to deal with the situation.

--Perhaps it was because the Samaritan had a sense that this is what God wants us to do.

--Perhaps it was an antidote to an otherwise boring day.

--Perhaps it was because the Samaritan decided that someone had to take a stand.

--Perhaps it was simply because the person was in need, no matter what his ethnic background.

Perhaps there are more reasons we could imagine, but let's not get too tied up in that imagining.

The important thing is that something that was needed was done, despite whatever mix of motivations the Samaritan may have had.

The point is not the motivation, but the action.

These days, the term that is used so much is “good intentions.”

A person may have good intentions, but still cause a disaster that costs someone her life.

It is not the intention, but the action that matters.

Isn't it a wonder that God can take our mixed up intentions, and somehow make his will happen through them or perhaps even in spite of them!

I heard an interesting reaction to the Community Meal in June at Redeemer Church, where our action apparently did match several intentions.

A man told me, 'Of all the places I go to eat, this is by far the best situation; pleasant place, good food, and no hassles and paperwork.”

If it is our intention to feed hungry people and value each person that shows up, then it appears that it is being accomplished. Wonderful!

Could there be additional intentions? Of course.

We could likely come up with several more very good purposes for the meal, but this is a place to start.

Let's think for a moment about the first of our actions, which is worship.

We could come up with a long list of intentions and reasons for getting together for worship, some of them good and some not so positive.

I'll not rehearse them all now; perhaps we could come up with an interesting list some other time.

We begin to be transformed in this gathering of God's people, as we come to understand that the point of this gathering is not us but God.

And God takes us with our mixed up mess of motivations and makes something wonderful happen.

God stirs us to action.

We can easily be caught in “analysis paralysis”, talking and studying an issue so long without actually doing anything.

We pray that God will by his Holy Spirit nudge, push, compel, and insist that we get on with doing what is needed.

At St. Mark's it is the Council's goal-setting process; at Redeemer it is the Council's Transformational Ministry process.

Both of them involve lots of talking, but must end up in action.

A smart-aleck person long ago suggested that the priest and the Levite hurried on past the man in the ditch because they were going to be late to a meeting about making the Jericho road safe from robbers.

It is a joke that bites sharply at us who would rather talk than do.

The parable is not hard to understand; what is difficult is actually doing it.

There is one more step in our discussion today.

When we ask the question, Who is it that needs both ordinary bread and the Bread of Life?, the answer is – All of us!

It takes two to “neighbor”, to give and to receive, and everyone is in both categories!

The man who asked the question of Jesus considered himself above other people, but it is now clear that he was in tremendous need himself and had not acknowledged it.

He was starving for the Bread of Life and had not recognized that fact.

The social, or ethnic or religious status of anyone does not change each person's need to be both a giver and receiver of mercy, to give and to receive ordinary bread as well as the Bread of Life, to graciously give and receive mercy in all of its forms.

Each of us has been in the ditch; each of us at other times has been walking along the road and has had opportunity to be the helper.

Isn't it wonderful that “there's a wideness in God's mercy, like the wideness of the sea....”[LBW#290.1] that can gather us together despite all of our limitations and our weaknesses and set us out with the tasks to be done anyway.

A wise person wrote: “What is the test of a good sermon?

From a specifically Christian point of view, the test of my sermon is not how well-organized it is, or how entertaining, or even how strictly biblical, but rather the response to the sermon.

The congregation, in its discipleship, is the final, most important test of a sermon.

What happens to us when we are confronted with the same injunction Jesus gave to the lawyer: “Go, and do likewise,” giving and receiving mercy. Let all say 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.