Delievered on Sunday 7 March, 2010
by Rev Dr John Evans
Isaiah 55:1-9
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9
In baseball there is a rule that says that if the game is two thirds of the way through the 9 innings of a full game, and one team is 10 runs ahead of the other, the game is called off. The leading team is declared the victor. It is known as the mercy rule. One team is saved the ignominy of having to continue and complete the encounter when the victor is obviously apparent. The defeat and annihilation does not have to be so drawn out. Some grace is shown towards the vanquished in an obvious mismatch. I think we could come up with many other examples in sport where there could be a mercy rule applied. My football team would make it a habit of only playing three quarters and not a full game.
Mercy.
Mercy is a quality we see in God. We pray, “merciful God”. It is a quality we are expected to show. Mercy is the quality that is the subject of our readings today. It is a also appropriate to reflect upon mercy in our own Lenten journey this year – and it is also relevant to our history here at the Church of All Nations.
Mercy – so what is it?
Mercy is not the same as forgiveness. Forgiveness is wiping the slate clean; blotting out wrongdoing and sinfulness. Forgiveness is as if something never happened. Mercy does not avoid the consequences of an action, but there is applied some grace and understanding. In the Old Testament, mercy is a covenant word. A word that is related to God and the Children of Israel keeping their promises. “I am your God, you are my people; keep my law, and I will watch over you.” Mercy is shown if the law is not kept - although the law still stands and its keeping is still expected. In our sporting illustration. The victor still wins, the loser still looses – although the process of getting to that point is a little more – well, merciful. Mercy indeed comes from that group of Hebrew words associated with hesed. A word we usually translate as “lovingkindness”. It is a quality of God to show this mercy.
Our readings today emphasise mercy, the mercy of God.
The Isaiah reading is a passage of abundant joy and exuberance. A passage in which the children of Israel are reminded that even though they had forsaken the covenant, and been taken to their Babylonia exile, God was still their God and would deal generously with them. The image is indeed a banquet, a meal – a meal we indeed recall in our service of Holy Communion this morning. Verse 7, however, then says
“Let the wicked forsake their ways, and the unrighteous their thoughts:
Let them return to the Lord, that God may have mercy on them, and to our God, for God will abundantly pardon.”
God will show mercy.
Our passage from Luke is also fundamentally about God’s mercy. Jesus begins by addressing the perennial, and one is tempted to say the immature view of God, that when bad things happen to people it is simply God acting, punishing people because they have sinned. This is a very mechanistic view of who God is. Jesus addresses that view with reference to two contemporary incidents in his homeland. The first is a rather gruesome exercise of imperial power in which the blood of some slain Galileans is mixed in Pilates own worship of the Imperial cult. The second concerned a failure of building regulations, or perhaps an earth tremor, who knows, but a tower in Jerusalem collapsed killing eighteen people. Jesus simply asks are all these folk any worse than others - or more pointedly are these people any worse than you or I. Are we this day any better or worse than the good people of Chile or Haiti. Jesus emphaticially says No. However, he still emphasises all have sinned and all should repent. Our sinning still has consequences.
It is in this context he tells then the story or parable of mercy.
The story itself is simple enough. A man has a fig tree, a mature fig tree. There are no figs on it. He orders that it be chopped down. A fig is apparently can have two seasons a year – and not having any, would be very disappointing. Why would he keep it – get rid of it. The gardener – some early greenie or environmentalist – pleaded that this not be the case. Another chance should be given. Give it a good dig, apply some manure – give it a lot of care and attention. Let us see what might happen. Well we don’t know what happens – but at that point, the gardener’s words seem to determine the mater:
“If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.”
Mercy is shown. Another chance is given. The ultimate consequence is still mentioned. The tree may be chopped down. In the meantime there is an opportunity given to turn the situation around. There is a stay of execution. Economic rationalism does not triumph . . immediately.
Mercy is frequently and usefully concretely expressed as time – extra time we are given. As we say in our more traditional prayers of confession – we pray for time for the amendment of life. Not only do we seek forgiveness of our sins – we seek time, time to turn our lives around.
Such is a good way to focus our thinking during this period of Lent. It is not so much what you may give up – and then come Easter immediately resume consumption of coffee or chocolate or cream puffs or what ever. What does God’s mercy mean for you? How may you - positively – amend your life, so that you may live with integrity and congruence with the way of Christ. WE do have God’s mercy to do this.
Dramatically we may do this if we have been told we, or a loved one, only has a short time to live. “It is an aggressive cancer, these will be the effects, and we would expect you, at your age to live for another three months.” What would you do? When my father received such a prognosis, we went on a road trip together - just to visit the places where he had live, where he had ministered. We said hello to people – but it was more of a farewell. In short we tried to do the things we would regret if we had not done them before he died. It was difficult, but it was good. . . . I trust with lasting consequences for my father and my self.
Indeed have you noticed the increasing number of books out now with titles like – 1000 places to visit before you die, or 1000 things to do, or eat or drink .. . before you die, or the like. Books, may I suggest, true secular books, simply reminding us that the goal in life is not a life full of our obsessions or a frantic pace to attain a career or things or whatever, or maintain a life of utter despair and worry. Rather life should be regraded as being merciful, God is merciful – we are given time to refocus our priorities and values and we can do it.
In Lent we can consider God’s mercy, being the extra year we have been given to do a bit o digging around the base of our lives and actually feeding our lives appropriately.
Every person I have ever spoke to who has been given a reprieve - they were not expected to live through the heart attack, or the cancer or accident, and yet they survived, says they now live life differently. Mercy, if we can understand it, gives us a new life and energy and hope.
So this week what has such a theme got to do with this theme we are also examining in the lead up to our anniversary on the 7th April. Yes mercy is what we should show in our life together. Quite simply I wish to suggest that the great heritage and mission we have here at Carlton, at this time is through the mercy of God.
At one level our history is remarkably sad, even tragic. David through his research has discerned that at the beginning of the 20th century were 10 churches representing protestant denominations of the Methodist, Presbytery and Congregational churches in Carlton and North Carlton and there now only remains one – this congregation, Church of All Nations. Now some of those congregations, like the fig tree in the parable, were chopped down, not so much because they were unfruitful, but because there were church unions within Methodism and even within Presbyterianism. Bible Christians, Primitive Methodists and Wesleyan Methodists (this congregation began as a Wesley Methodist) all merged in 1902. This was good news about our unity in Christ, and not of decline and unfruitfulness. However, there were still lean, very lean periods, and the very future of our congregation’s cause in Carlton was in question. The early 1960’s was one such period in which the congregation had declined to such and extent its very viability was being debated. And, as we know, mercy, was shown. This was at the time of the appointment of Rev Norman Lowe. The tree was tended, fertilizer was applied and it grew and prospered. We began our ministry with the Estate, we became the Church of All Nations. We showed mercy within the community. Such mercy unleashed a great fruitful time.
Today in the Uniting Church we agonise over the vibrancy and the energy of Christ’s church. We wonder whether it is able to survive. We spend a lot of time on considering whether a congregation may survive, or should it merge or whatever. Such thoughts may even been cast over our life here. We as a denomination perhaps do not spend enough time, or do we as a congregation spend enough time, considering that in fact we are here today because of the mercy of God. Mercy was been extended – and shouldn’t that be reflected in our new life and energy, like the prisoner reprieved or the heart transplant patient or the fig tree and the gardener of the parable.
Mercy is not just a passive thing for us to soak up – as Isaiah shows it call for celebration and action. Mercy is a theme of our church and its life.
