6-5-2014

Good Morning All,

        Matthew 9:13; “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

     “You have to learn what it means!”  I don’t know how many times in my athletic career, playing and coaching, that this phrase was used.  In either instance, it meant that the learning process was the old-fashioned way, some called it the school of hard knocks.  Sometimes you just have to experience an event to learn what it means.  It is hard to explain how it feels to come up to bat in the bottom of the last inning with your team behind by one run, a runner on third and you are batting.  You have to learn it.  Some things can only be learned by experience.  Riding a bull is something that can only be learned by riding a bull no amount of “book learning” will ever replace riding the bull.

     So how do we learn what it means “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice”?  Well the best, and perhaps only way, is by experience and we have had a lot of experience.  We have received mercy from God over and over.  Jesus came into the world to die for sinners, you and me.  He came while you and I were still enemies of God.  We were seeking after our own selfish and self-centered desires.  Because of this selfish desire, we were lost from God.  We were adrift in a broken world that the devil tormented.  We were tormented as well and we deserved it.  Yet God had mercy.  He showed us love that we did not deserve.  He shows us love we do not deserve.  He will show us love that we will not deserve.  Yet without that love, we would not be completely lost.

    So Jesus tells us to share that mercy.  We live entirely before God because of his mercy.  There is nothing we can do to earn that love; there is no amount of sacrifices that we can perform to earn it.  So Jesus tells us to live the same way; to show mercy to others as we have had mercy shown to us.  We are not to expect others to live up to a standard that we fail to meet.  This only serves to reinforce that failure.

    So we see that, in order to reconcile with others, the only way is through mercy.  We are reconciled to God because of his mercy on us.  We reconcile with our brother through our mercy as well.  It also takes our brother’s mercy on us as well.  We can never build a relationship with each other by keeping score.  A relationship is not about winning or losing; it is not about control or dominance.  A relationship requires love; it requires mercy.  Without mercy, relationships shrivel up and die.  Sometimes, we learn that the hard way but we have the example and the experience of our own life with God.  We have received nothing but mercy from God in order to be part of his kingdom, a member of his family.  Mercy is how love works.

Gracious Father, in your mercy we find hope.  In your mercy, you spared us from the torment of the devil and from eternal condemnation.  Protect us by your grace.  Guide us by your Spirit to have mercy on those whom we meet, with those whom we love.  Be with those who are struggling showing mercy.  Help them to see that through you mercy has been shown to them.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret