Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Luke 6:36-42)
Be merciful, even as your father is merciful.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Today’s gospel reading does not really teach us about what salvation is and what Jesus did for us—but it tells us how to live, what to do as Christians. And there are many passages in the gospels where Jesus teaches us what to do and how we should behave.
Sometimes Christians say, “Well, I’m forgiven—it doesn’t matter what I do now anymore.” Well—this isn’t true. Of course it matters what you do. St Paul says in Romans, “What should we do? Should we sin so that grace may abound?” No way! Every day in our lives as Christians we are fighting a battle against our own flesh, putting the old person to death, so that Christ may live his life through us.
But before we get to the text, let’s think about a couple of things first. When God created Adam and Eve, they didn’t need the forgiveness of sins. They hadn’t sinned. There was no sin in them yet, and so there was no need for God to forgive them.
Still, God gave Adam a job. Adam had to look after and keep the garden that God had given to him. Also, he had to keep himself away from the tree that God had told him not to eat.
Adam was created in the image of God—he didn’t need to become the image of God. Adam wasn’t looking to the future all the time to become something better than he was. Adam had a place where God had put him, and he was called to live a life as God’s image in that place.
The same goes for us as Christians. Through the fall into sin, we lost the image of God. Human beings are no longer immortal, they are no longer perfect, pure, and holy in God’s eyes.
But when we are baptised, we are renewed in the image of God. We are created new, afresh, we are made completely holy, immortal, pure, righteous, just like Adam. The only difference between us and Adam before he fell, is that we need to be covered with the blood of Jesus to be holy in God’s eyes. It’s Jesus blood, his death, his suffering, his atonement, that makes us holy. We don’t make ourselves holy by doing good works. Jesus is the one who speaks his holiness over us. When we do something good, we might think that all God wants to do is thank us for it. No—it’s the other way around. God does the good work—he saves us—and all of our offerings are thank-offerings, not atonement-offerings. Jesus is the Lamb of God who was sacrificed for us.
Listen to this verse from Ephesians 4:24: “Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Do you hear that? Put on the new self. That means, put away your sinfulness every day—place it in God’s hands for him to anoint each day with Christ’s blood. And put on the new self. Put on the new person that is given to you in Holy Baptism. Put on Jesus Christ. Clothe yourself with him, so that his purity is your purity. It says: Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
So you see, each of us who are baptised have been given this new self, each of us has been created anew in the likeness of God.
Also, in Colossians, St Paul says: “Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
We are baptised. We have been given this new self—and each day we are called to put it on.
So—since we are made new in the image of God, just like Adam in the Garden of Eden, we are given a garden to look after. We are given a place in life, a calling, a station, where are simply called to stand, to stand guard, and protect.
Sometimes Christians think to be a good Christian they have to leave their home and do some great fantastic thing around the other side of the world, like Mother Teresa or something. But actually, it is precisely in our homes, in our workplaces, in our communities where we live where God has put us where we are called to shine the light of God’s image.
And so Jesus says: Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Jesus does not sit you down in a room with butcher paper and white board markers to work out how many ways you can be merciful in the coming week or in the coming month. That’s not the point. Jesus is not telling you so much what to do, but what to be.
You don’t need to go very far to find out where to be merciful. God has put you, just like Adam, on a little patch of earth for you to look after. All you need to do is keep your eyes open and watch. God will send you someone who needs your mercy.
If you sit around and plan all the ways that you want to be merciful, you might miss the opportunity that God places right under your nose. Think again about Lazarus and the rich man—Lazarus was placed, he was laid there at the rich man’s gate. God put him there. The rich man didn’t need to go out looking for someone to be merciful to.
Think also of the Good Samaritan—he didn’t go out looking for a bleeding man on a roadside. He simply found the man there and had compassion on him.
At the same time, there are some situations where mercy is not the right thing for you to do. If you are in a position of authority over someone, you are not called to show mercy if the person needs punishment. For example, if you are a boss, and one of your employees is not doing his or her job, you need to go and sort the problem out. If you are a parent, and your child is naughty, you need to tell them off and teach them how to behave. If you are a teacher in a school, you are not called to show mercy to your students if they are being disobedient. If you are a policeman, and someone is going to open fire on a whole bunch of innocent people in a public street, you are not called to be merciful with your gun. You need to do something for the protection of the innocent people. In those situations, your calling requires you to punish and to judge. And it’s a good thing in the eyes of God—and it’s also considered a bad thing when people in authority don’t use their authority properly.
Mercy is something that you show to people who are equal to you.
You might think—this person is a piece of scum. They have never done anything for me—they deserve whatever they get.
That’s the person whom God calls you to be merciful to. You see, Jesus doesn’t just say, “Be merciful”, but he says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” God the Father is the one who sets the standard here.
So Christian mercy is something different from everyone else’s mercy. Everyone else knows how to scratch someone else’s back in order to have the same person scratch their back some day.
But Christian mercy expects nothing in return. Christian mercy gives when the person receiving doesn’t deserve it. A Christian is merciful—a Christian shows mercy and gives a person what they need—a Christian sends out an invitation never expecting to receive an invitation in return.
But you see, just imagine what God would do if he only showed mercy to those who deserved it. Just imagine if the expression, “God helps those who helps themselves”, were actually true! Just imagine if God looked at all of your failings and decided that he would punish you every day for every single one of them. But you know, he doesn’t. You still have enough food to eat, you still have a roof over your head—even though you’ve probably never thought that they were a gift to you from God. He still forgives your sins. He still pours the blood of Jesus out on you—you don’t deserve it, but he still does it. He wants to show mercy to you. He wants to be forgiving, he wants to be generous, he wants to give you good things.
That’s what Jesus calls you to be like. He calls you to be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Or as it says in another place, “You received without pay, give without pay.” Freely you have received, freely give.
But remember here—God is not calling you to go on some great epic journey to find somewhere to be merciful. God has put you right here—and here is the place to be merciful. And when you have failed at being merciful—God is still merciful to you. He still forgives you day after day.
Listen also to these words of Jesus which follow: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
These words are not principles for life. These are the commandments of God which you are called to guard and protect in your little garden, on your little patch of earth. Watch! Wait! God will put a situation under your own nose, and there will be your opportunity to be merciful, and to show God’s mercy to whomever he puts there for you. God will put someone in your little garden who doesn’t deserve your help or God’s help. Be merciful. Judge not. Condemn not. Forgive. Give. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.
One last thought—something often comes to my mind which struck me towards the beginning of the year. It was Shrove Tuesday, and I was reading the Latrobe Express, and at the time I was preparing a sermon for Ash Wednesday. Now the gospel for Ash Wednesday from Matthew 6 says: “When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what you right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
This is such an important text—and I remember reading in the newspaper that week about a church in the area that was having a Pancake Day fundraiser for charity. And the article really talked up this church and praised the people for doing a great job.
“They already received their reward.” This group of Christians wasn’t content to let God alone see their work, but they needed the newspaper crew to come in and do an article.
We are not called to do that.
There are so many situations all throughout Gippsland where people are in great need and need your help. They might not deserve your help, but you are called to be merciful, as your Father is merciful.
But take notice especially of those situations where God has chosen you alone to see a certain needy situation that needs your mercy. Never disregard those things—it is very significant. There may be times when God shines his light from heaven just on you and another person in such a way that nobody will see what you do except for God. Let God alone reward you.
He has shown his mercy so abundantly, and so wonderfully to you. He is always being merciful to you. He has remade you, and reworked you through baptism into his image. And in the image of God, he has put you in a little place. It is your job to stand there—to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.
And when God puts someone in front of you needing your mercy, needing you not to judge them, not to condemn them, to forgive them, to give to them—then do it. And do it with every piece of joy in your body.
For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.
Amen.
Merciful heavenly Father, we thank you for your wonderful great mercy to us. We know and confess that we have not been merciful to others as you want us. But we ask that you would teach us to put on the new self each day, which you have given to us in baptism, and teach us to be merciful and shine your light into the lives of those around us, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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