|
 |
 |
Faith Crosses the Line Text:
Luke 17:11-19 Moments ago you said “Amen” thereby joining your voice and prayer to the collect of the day imploring God to keep His Church with His perpetual mercy. Mercy. That's the Word for today. Our Lord said to the Pharisees and to all of us who get so tripped up and wrapped up in the Law and legalism, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” [Matthew 9:13 (ESV)]. And with that Word He puts us all, and all the world, into the same boat: sinners in need of God's mercy. So mercy, the mercy of God is what we need. “Keep, we implore You, O Lord, Your Church with Your perpetual mercy.” Amen
Too often it seems we say “Amen” when we don't really mean it or understand what was just said. Too often we take matters into our own hands with little thought to anything approaching Christ-like patience, trusting the Lord to be our defense; too often we set our hopes and desires not on the Lord's mercy but only on gratifying our passions and our own definitions of fairness. And as for love for others—especially toward those who hurt us or hate us—too often we prefer to give in to anger and hatred and revenge. Our Lord said, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” [Luke 6:36 (ESV)]. That means to say that if we really are Christians we will reflect to others the same attitude God has shown to us. It follows, then, that when we fail to show mercy, or even to give thanks to God for His mercy on us, we demonstrate that we must have some other “father,” belong to some other family, that we know not the merciful heart of God.
That's why the Christian liturgy has us repeat the prayer, “to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor sinful being” (confession), “Lord, have mercy on us, Christ, have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us” (Kyrie), “O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us” (Gloria), “O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy upon us” (Agnus Dei). We pray for mercy precisely because, apart from His bottomless mercy, we will not obtain the deliverance, the inheritance, the kingdom, the life He promises us. We pray for mercy because we give in all too easily to that dastardly list of the works of the flesh St. Paul reports: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these (Gal. 5:19-21). We pray for mercy because we sincerely and earnestly desire the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).
Our prayer, no matter how many or few words we use, no matter how much we struggle or resist the Spirit, must always be, “Lord, have mercy,” the prayer of the heart, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” For if the Lord does not have mercy on us then we are without hope, loveless and faith grows weak and dies. Who would want to believe in a God who treats us like we treat each other, without mercy?
Then again, even when we mouth the prayer, “Lord, have mercy,” too often we take for granted His love, or speak that prayer as if we were snapping our fingers at a waiter. But most often we say “Lord, have mercy” with little thought or desire to thank Him for His mercy. For we forget that His mercy is not as cheap as ours—a word quickly, half-heartedly, sometimes grudgingly spoken. Instead, the Lord's mercy cost Him nothing less than the life of His Son. Yet too often it is received even by us not as a gift but as our due.
Most surprising of all, however, is that even our ingratitude does not stop His mercy or turn Him against us. God does not undo what He mercifully has done. Ask the nine lepers in our text who did not return to give thanks. Their unthankfulness did not bring back their leprosy; they were still healed.
What they missed, however, was the Lord's blessing, his further word as to the Samaritan, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” They missed not the healing, the things for their body, the things that make for this life, but they did miss the things that usher us safely into the Kingdom of heaven. Just ask the one leper who returned. This Samaritan, being an outcast from the temple and the religious life of the Jews anyway, could care less about being certified “clean” by the priest. Suddenly, his highest priority, the most important thing for him became worshipping this Lord Jesus who healed him. So he “turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.”
This was the sign, one piece of outward, observable evidence that the Holy Spirit was at work creating faith in the heart. In this one you see a man who swallows his pride; who acknowledges his unworthiness; who confesses that he is undeserving of any gift from God. So when he receives that gift, faith is born and, in thanksgiving, begins also to live from the mercy he has received. For living in the Lord's mercy begins not by doing for others, but by receiving more and more from the Lord's hand. Then the living in the Lord's mercy expresses itself with the sacrificing of yourself to allow God to change you, to make you merciful just as your heavenly Father has been merciful to you; merciful, laying aside all grudges, all notions of revenge, all hatred, all ill-speaking, living no longer to gratify your lusts and desires but to walk in the Spirit with all the saints toward the kingdom which is your ultimate goal. To this end may the Lord continue His mercy to us, within us, and among us. And may we, as His children and heirs of His mercy, live for Him by living mercifully with each other and with all whom we meet, even with those who hurt us or hate us. ____________________
| |
