Mercy
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The mercy of God exceeds all hope and imagination. It never
runs dry. It lifts us up from the lowest depths. It rescues us from impossible
situations. But most of all, the mercy our Lord continually gives allows us to
have joy, even when we are in pain; to have hope, even when we are grieving; to
look up, even when we are feeling down; to push on, even when we see no way
out; to trust, even when we have severe doubts; to do what is right, even when
we are deathly afraid; to remain strong, even when we are weak; and to expect
great things, even when we are mistreated and dying.
Yet how does this great and abundant mercy of God live in us?
Does it come alive only when it is to our advantage? Is it suppressed by our
distorted notions of fairness and justice? Does it live without a lively
remembrance that we are not worthy of any of the mercies of God? Does it live
only when we confess that we are not worthy to have the Lord come under the
roof of our soul? Does it only live when we acknowledge that we truly deserve
worse than Lazarus—even worse than the rich man in Hades?
The mercy of God is all that gave a man like Lazarus the
strength to live each day. He certainly received no strength from the few
crumbs he was able to scrounge. In fact, there is little or nothing he can do
to improve his lot—except to rely on the mercy of God, and to live from that
mercy. It’s easy to see ourselves in this diseased beggar, for we were dead in
our sins.
But what about the
rich man? For the sake of charity, let us say that he prayed daily, gave a
tenth of all that he had, showed kindness to his staff, doted on his children,
helped his brothers, and was tender-hearted and generous toward his wife. Even
if this is the case, the rich man ignored poor, sickly Lazarus: the man at his
doorstep whose very presence cried out for mercy. Is the mercy of God alive in
this rich fool? What good are all these others kindnesses that the rich man
doles out to his family and friends if he refuses to have mercy on some
stranger? And what does this show us about this man’s reception and response to
the mercy of God?
Later on we hear the rich man cry out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me.” But he receives no mercy,
precisely because he gave no mercy when he was alive. But Lazarus is comforted
and receives the fullness of the Lord’s mercy precisely because he pins all his
hopes to God and trusts that, however badly things go, the Lord will care for
him—even in ways he cannot see and can hardly believe.
Dearly beloved, we are much better off than poor Lazarus—not
just because we have money and food and medicine. We are much better off than
poor Lazarus because we are able to receive here, at this altar, the mercy of
God in the body and blood of Christ. We are much better off because we don’t
have to hope for the kingdom
of God. We enter it every
time we gather in the name of Jesus in this holy house.
The Lord still continues to come to us, to reach out to us,
to draw us into Himself, and to pour into our hearts the soothing and
comforting balm of His undying and overabundant mercy. This mercy of God is
known only by the Gospel given in preaching and the Sacraments. This mercy of
God is initiated solely by God the Father in the sacrifice of His Son, given to
us by the sending of the Spirit. It is this mercy which Christ sends out His
messengers to preach and administer. It is this mercy which melts our hardened
hearts and our self-righteousness. It is this mercy of the Lord which continues
to lift us up, and give us hope, and bury our sins. And it is this mercy of the
Lord which never rests until we have been carried safely through this life and into
the life of the world to come. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God
which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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