Friday, March 5, 2010

Time to be merciful

Have you ever noticed that we don’t have a reality show on the television, to determine who will be a Survivor for eternity? Or a show to determine who the biggest sinner is? Wheel of Fortune has not put a category that allows someone to get into heaven quickly or to be dropped into perdition (hell) for a visit. Jeopardy does not have a category that does the same things. Maybe it’s because we might be scared to do so. After all we are all good people, right? No one of us are sinners like a Jeffrey Dalmer, Clifford Olson or Paul Bernardo. Our sins are only little sins and really don’t amount to much. We aren’t like the people who have had earthquakes and tsunamis. We haven’t been evil, and not even particularly bad people who swindle others out of their money like Bernie Madoff. We haven’t stolen money from the public trust like politicians and bureaucrats. Really, we aren’t “bad” people.

And while we may not be like these people or others that we could think of or mention to each other, there is one thing that is perfectly clear: all of us are in the same boat when it comes to sin and therefore all of us know the need to repent. Let’s be blunt for a moment, repentance is more than just saying one is sorry for what has been done (or not done as the case may be) though it is linked to forgiveness. Everybody is sorry for things that have happened and have had to apologize for it: amateur and professional athletes, politicians at various levels and other public figures including pastors and evangelists. Jesus makes it clear that there is not one of us who is not in need of repentance – to change one’s mind and attitudes. If we are going to be new people, then we need to stop doing the old things. Otherwise we keep experiencing the same troubles, the same problems over and over again, causing suffering and tragedy in its wake.      

What is there that we can learn from suffering and tragedy? We have seen something of that in the past while. Someone told me recently that the earthquake in Chile was so powerful and released so much energy that the earth’s axis was changed and our day has been shortened by one eighteenth of a second. We have seen the devastation of the earthquakes in both Chile and Haiti. We have seen what war is doing in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and what mudslides and tsunamis (tidal waves) have done in Indonesia and South East Asia. We are still feeling the effects of the attacks of September 11th and think about what could have happened if terrorist had been successful in places like Toronto. Even in our own community, people struggle with lives that are burden by drugs and alcohol, different forms of abuse, poverty, greed and gossip.

We like to think that we are safe and it is only others who are afflicted. We believe ourselves to be nearly invulnerable to suffering and disaster and others suffer because they are weak or somehow less than the rest of us. Our society likes to help believe that it will all get better and if not there is always a purple pill to pop. The Gospel strips that false sense of security away and causes us to really examine the truth about our lives. It may be that the reflect starts with a tragedy in someone can do that. Encountering deep poverty, distress and mental illness can do that. Experiencing the suffering and pain of another in a hospital bed or at a kitchen table can lay us bear as we share with one another. And it ought to make aware of the need to depend upon God.

Is one kind of tragedy worse than another? Is it because some us are good and others are not so good that some suffering is deeper than others? Is one person a worse sinner than another? Jesus puts those kinds of things to one side and reminds us that we are all going to face judgment. Therefore all of us are in need of healing, in the need of grace and in need of repentance. All of us are in need. And the great thing is that there is time and that God offers those things that we need, without money, without price. It is easier to understand a God who is angry with sinners and who wants to meet out just punishment for sins and wickedness. It make God predictable and somewhat more understandable. If I am good, act properly or at least if I am neutral then I avoid being punished. It is hard to understand why God would go so far for people that he would offer himself in atonement for our waywardness and or shortcomings. God desires to be merciful. God desires to draw you to himself and to live with you – will you let him? There is not only forgiveness for those things done and left undone; there is mercy to allow for the amendment of life and time to bear fruit. And not only to we need to bear fruit fitting of repentance but also the fruit that the Spirit enables to grow and flourish as we mature as Christians and followers. So this week let us be perfect in mercy to others as God is merciful to us.   

No comments:

Post a Comment