September 6, 2009

2009 09 06

Git 'R Dun:  Showing Mercy

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23

Psalm 27:7-10 and Luke 6:36

James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17
Mark 7:24-37

I have to admit.  This was not the sermon I had planned on giving. I had planned on telling you about Labor Day and work and our jobs.  But I couldn't do it.  Most of us are fortunate and blessed to have work...to have employment that meets our needs and keeps a roof over our heads.  For this, we should be truly thankful each and every day.  Because for each of us who has work, there are also those who do not have work, or enough work to pay the bills and keep the home fires burning. 

The current state of our nation's economy shows that people have to do more with a lot less.  Most people are looking for ways to make it from paycheck to paycheck.  They are looking for a little help.  In other words, people in our country are poorer than they have been in a long time. 

No one that I know wants to be poor.  No one intentionally goes out and squanders all that they have in the hopes that they may become poor.  Poverty just happens.  There has been poverty in this world since about the beginning.  It is just that we are seeing it more than we are used to. 

Once upon a time, we may have felt that there was a cure for poverty.  Money.  You need things.  You need money to get those things.  Get a job that pays enough money.  Get the money.  Get the things.  Problem solved.  But getting money is not the solution to poverty.  The solution to poverty is mercy. 

Although we might not admit it publicly, we mistreat the poor.  In our nation, in our state, and in our local communities, we mistreat the poor.  We don't like to be around them.  They're dirty.  They don't take care of themselves.  They don't have nice things.  They don't know how to act.  Fill in the blank.  They are second or third class citizens.

In our hearts, we know that we would rather hang around with more typical, affluent, normal people...people like ourselves.  If two people came to our doors, one wearing a suit and tie...the other wearing ratty old clothes, we know that we would let the suit and tie guy in long before we would welcome the poor person into our homes.  It's true.

A couple of months ago, my former pastor tried an experiment.  She dressed up in old clothes, smeared dirt on her face, and walked along a busy road.  Although she was out there for an hour or two, only one person asked her if she needed help.  Only one person showed her any compassion...any mercy. 

What does mercy look like?  How can we describe mercy?  The lectionary passage from Mark 7 for today gives us an excellent example. 

²⁵ A woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at (Jesus') feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." ²⁸ "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." ²⁹ Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter." ³⁰ She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone

Jesus came to the world as the messiah, the savior of the world.  But he came first to save the Jewish people.  In his travels and his ministries, he reached out primarily to the Jews.  They had eagerly awaited his coming, and he would be revealed to them first.  However, a Syro-Phoenician woman came to him.  She was a Greek, not a Jew.  She was from Syria, not Israel.  Add to it the fact that women of that time were not highly regarded.  Just to touch Jesus would make him ceremonially unclean.  She had no right to ask anything of Jesus.  He could have ignored her or told her to go away.  But she came in faith.  She hoped.  She believed that not only that Jesus could heal her daughter, but that he would. 

Because she came in faith, he showed her great mercy.  And with mercy comes healing.  Perhaps this is really what James is talking about in chapter 2.  When the poor come, we push them aside and give the rich the position of honor. 

⁴ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

God is merciful.  His kingdom...his inheritance is for those who may be poor in money, but rich in spirit and in faith.  We may view the poor as a burden, but James points out that it is really the rich who cause us more trouble.  In seeking greater riches, the rich often trample on all beneath them...including us.  So why do we favor them?

James reminds us  ⁸ If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. ⁹ But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.  To sin on this one point, is to sin on all points.  If we are guilty, we are guilty.  So James tells us to:

¹² Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, ¹³ because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

Mercy triumphs over judgment.  Mercy is the sign of a righteous heart.  Mercy is the outward expression of what God is doing on our insides.  It is like a fountain streaming forth from our hearts.  We can say whatever we like.  We can say that we are Christians.  We can say that we believe in the Lord, but that is often what comes from our heads.  Faith comes from our hearts.  Mercy is a sign that Jesus is alive and real...and he lives in us.  Mercy is what Christians do, because it is what God has done. 

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Mercy is God working in us, and the world needs to see more of it.  The world wants to see more of it.  We have the opportunity to show love and hope to it.  That is how they know we really love God...by the way we love others.

From last week's scripture

^{James 1:26} If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

If we are a religion of words, we are a false religion led by false prophets headed to a false reward.  But if we are a people of faith, a people of mercy, and a people of deeds, we glorify God in our actions and the world will be transformed.

But the greatest thing that we have is the greatest thing that we can give...mercy.  Mercy triumphs over judgment!

Speak and act as someone who lives according to the mercy God has shown to you.  Do not show favoritism to a few, but show mercy to all.