9-17-2018

  Good Morning All,

            Micah 6:8; “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”   

      We have all heard the old saying “give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.”  It is a way to view life and a way to live out a Christian, faithful lifestyle.  Yet it sort of misses the point.  It sounds good but it assumes that you can actually fix the problem by yourself.

    There is a difference between mercy and justice.  Mercy is what you and I do to relieve pain and suffering.  Mercy is giving the man a fish because he is hungry and needs to eat today.  Mercy is meeting the needs of now, right now.  It is one of the most important things that we, as Christians, show one another.  It should be an automatic response from each of us.  The desire to come to the aid of someone in need should be in every Christian’s heart.

    Justice is a little different thing.  Justice is teaching the man to fish.  Justice is about fixing some problem that exists.  Mercy is giving someone the food they need to eat for today.  Justice is getting them better jobs or better pay so that they can afford to buy their own food.  There is a difference in that justice usually takes a large effort by a lot of people for a long time.  It can be daunting.  Yet we seek justice because God tells us to.  We are to do justice.  We should not take advantage of anyone.  We should not stand by as someone else takes advantage either.  God calls upon us to seek and to do justice.

    Yet it is a sinful world and justice can take years to accomplish.  Years to right the wrongs of cruelty and exploitation.  It can take years to get people to recognize the problem.  Yet the person needs to eat today.  He needs shelter and protection now.  So he needs our mercy right now.  He needs justice, that is for sure, but he needs mercy now.

    This is where we as Christians need to respond.  Sometimes, we look at a situation and see that justice is a long ways off and we are almost paralyzed by inaction.  There is no way we can aid everyone.  There is no way to continually try and use only mercy; we need to accomplish justice.  Yet for today, have mercy; have mercy for one person.  Feed one man, one fish for today.  Sometimes that is all we can do.  If that is all we can do, then we do all we can; just that one fish to that one man.

    So calls upon us to do justice; yet mercy must flow like a river because I can be merciful and you can be merciful; one person aiding one person, as best as we can.  We can work toward justice, we can strive for justice but we must live in mercy.  Every day we need to show mercy to our fellow man because every day God shows you mercy.

Father of all mercy, lead us to be merciful and to seek justice in this world.  Break our hearts as we see pain and suffering.  Move us to action for those who are in need of your holy compassion.  Use us as your instruments to brig healing to the world.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret