Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Matthew 5:1-7 March 18, 2007

The Beatitudes #5:
“The Promise of Mercy”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer

Matthew 5:1-6
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”

I dropped in at the new Target in Chambersburg this past week. I didn’t need or want anything, I just decided to stop to see the store. Well, on my way out onto Norland Avenue extended, the new traffic light changed and I had to stop before crossing over Norland. I had carefully looked to see which lane I should be in before approaching the line, and it was clearly marked that if you wanted to go straight, you should be in the left lane. When the light changed, it changed to a green arrow pointing left. In other words, anyone in that lane who wanted to go left could go ahead – as long as there wasn’t someone in front of you who was waiting to go straight. I was first in line. I was waiting to get the green light to go straight. The guy behind me wanted to turn left, but I was in his way. It wasn’t my fault, it was the fault of those who designed the turn lanes. This guy was back there having a hissy fit. He was beeping, waving his arms, pointing at the light, pointing to the left, and I was trying not to have a hissy fit waving my arms trying to show him that I wasn’t turning left so I couldn’t go.
Well, when I finally got the green to go, I was so glad to get away from this guy. And then I began to think. “Man, he was really stressed out. He must have been in one huge hurry.” And I said a prayer without thinking too much about it: “Lord, have mercy on him.” I remembered all the times I had been just like him, upset because someone in front of me wasn’t moving fast enough, I remembered moments of seething in a “fast food” drive-up that was so slow you might as well have gone home and made it yourself. And I said another prayer for myself this time, “Lord, have mercy on me.”
What does it mean to have mercy – to receive mercy? William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible Commentary states this, “Mercy does not mean only to sympathize with a person in the popular sense of the term; it does not mean simply to feel sorry for someone in trouble. Mercy means the ability to get right inside the other person’s skin until we can see things with his eyes, think things with his mind, and feel things with his feelings. Clearly, this is much more than an emotional wave of pity; clearly this demands a quite deliberate effort of the mind and of the will. It denotes a sympathy which is not given, as it were, from outside, but which comes from a deliberate identification with the other person, until we see things as he sees them, and feel things as he feels them. This is sympathy in the literal sense of the word. Sympathy is derived from two Greek words, syn which means together with, and paschein which means to experience or to suffer. Sympathy means experiencing things together with the other person, literally, going through what he/she is going through.” (p. 103)

Easier said than done, isn’t it? We might feel sorry for someone, but that is far different than being merciful towards them. Being merciful towards another person takes us to a place outside ourselves; feeling sorry for someone keeps us comfortable right where we are.
Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? Three people walked right by the guy beaten up on the side of the road. Perhaps the first two looked and felt sorry for the fellow, but staying in their own nice, neat, predictable pathway, they kept on walking. They might have been late for an important appointment had they tarried to help the guy. They probably justified their hands-off actions by telling themselves the guy was probably drunk, and/or had probably done something to deserve the condition in which he found himself there on the side of the road.
The third person who passed by had mercy on the stranger. He left his schedule, his own destination, and his place of predictability to really feel for this fellow. “How would it be for me to be helpless along the roadside with no one caring enough to stop and offer help?” He was merciful. Listen to what he did: But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:33-37)
We are not too good at showing mercy. We are far too self-centered and judgmental. We see someone who needs help, and we immediately calculate what it might cost us to ask, “what can I do for you?” Or we immediately make a judgment about why that person is in the mess they’re in.
James writes in James 2:13, “For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”
What if God calculated what it was going to cost Him to offer us mercy, and decided it was just too high of a price? What if God was not a merciful judge? Where would we be?
I think mercy and forgiveness live very close together. The truly merciful are too aware of their own sins to deal with others harshly in definitive judgment. Nothing moves me to forgive others like the amazing realization that God has forgiven my own sins. When I really take the time to remember how lost I’d be without the mercy of God, it is difficult for me to choose against showing mercy to the sinner beside me – no matter how much offering mercy to them costs me. Compared to the very life of our Savior given for us in mercy, what’s a little comfort, a little time, or a little money to help someone in need?
“Once there was a feeble old woman whose husband died and left her all alone, so she went to live with her son and his wife and their own little daughter. Every day the woman’s sight dimmed and her hearing grew worse, and sometimes at dinner her hands trembled so badly the peas rolled off her spoon or the soup ran from her cup. The son and his wife could not help but be annoyed at the way she spilled her meal all over the table, and one day, after she knocked over a glass of milk, they told each other enough was enough.
They set up a small table for her in the corner next to the broom closet and made the old woman eat her meals there. She sat all alone, looking with tear-filled eyes across the room at the others. Sometimes they spoke to her while they ate, but usually it was to scold her for dropping a bowl or a fork.
One evening just before dinner, the little girl was busy playing on the floor with her building blocks, and her father asked her what she was making. “I’m building a little table for you and mother,” she smiled, “so you can eat by yourselves in the corner someday when I get big.”
Her parents sat staring at her for some time, and then suddenly both began to cry. That night they led the old woman back to her place at the big table. From then on, she ate with the rest of the family, and her son and his wife never seemed to mind a bit when she spilled something every now and then. “
We need to be reminded to consider the plights of others. We need to be challenged to walk in their shoes, sit in their seat, stand in their place, lie in their bed. We need the standard that Jesus has set for us – the standard of offering mercy to all people by choosing to be with people.
Let us remember that wonderful Scripture from Philippians 2, “He was born in human likeness.” He was named Immanuel, which means, “God is with us.” Colossians 1:14 speaks of Jesus, “He is the image of the invisible God.” God himself came as a man, he came seeing things with men’s eyes, and feeling things with men’s feelings. God came in Jesus right inside our lives so that he could feel and know our need. Let us remember some of his final words of mercy, “Father, forgive them (be merciful to them), for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
I have spent many, many hours in the hospital in the last several weeks. Those who have been in the beds have said to me, “The people in here are so nice. They have done everything with such kindness.” I almost always respond by saying, “It’s a lot easier to be nice to someone who is nice back to you.” What if the patient in the bed is like that guy behind me coming onto Norland Avenue? “Hurry up, get me my pills! Hurry up, get me my lunch! Hurry up, I want to sit in the chair, I want to lie down, I want, I want, I want…”
Jesus says to us, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”
If you are willing to think beyond yourself to the concerns, needs, and the pain of others, if you are willing to offer yourself to help lift some of their distress instead of ignoring it, judging it, or even stomping it in frustration, Jesus says that you yourself will receive mercy.
It seems in my experience that, most frequently, we use the word ‘mercy’ in times of overwhelming helplessness. “O God, be merciful.” When we don’t know what else to pray, we say, “O God, be merciful.” “Come to our aid, O God.” “Please do not stand so far away.”
The truth is, the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. Every day we wake up with a clean slate before us. Titus 3:3-7 proclaims this, “Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled by others and became slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy. We hated others, and they hated us. But then God our Savior showed us his kindness and love. He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did. He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness. And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.”
God’s mercy is what clothed Adam and Eve. God’s mercy is what saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. God’s mercy is what gave Elizabeth the baby she had waited for her whole life, and God’s mercy called that baby to grow up to announce the coming of very Mercy itself in the form of the Messiah.
God’s mercy is what caused Jesus to reach out to heal so many when he walked among us; God’s mercy is what called Jesus to the cross.
Every day we have the choice to extend God’s mercy to those around us, or we can choose to feed our own needs to the exclusion of the needs of others. I’m so grateful to know that through the generosity of some people in this congregation, 17 little children all over the world are receiving God’s mercy through us and through the ministry of Compassion International. I am so anxious to hear of the ways our mission team received mercy as they extended the mercy of Christ to others. But we don’t have to go anywhere to put into practice what Jesus is calling us to do. Right here in this sanctuary, there are probably people to whom you should extend mercy, whether you want to or not. In your homes, there are probably people there, too, who need mercy. At school, at work, everywhere you go, there are people who need mercy. Are you willing to look around and see whom God puts on your heart? Are you willing to walk in the shoes of another? If we do not show Christ’s mercy as Christians, who will show it?
Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” We have already received God’s mercy in having our eyes opened to see our need for Jesus. But there are different times in our lives that we need someone on earth to extend mercy to us. There are times we need someone to help us – to make sure we have food, medicine, warm clothes, transportation, a place to lay our head. There are times we need more than a card in the mail; we need someone to come and hold our hand and show us mercy. There are times we need forgiveness; there are times we need someone to chop some wood, mow the grass, or read a book to us. There are times we need someone to talk to, and we don’t need to be judged. We just need someone to offer us the mercy of a listening ear.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” If we begin with the first beatitude, wanting to be poor in spirit, trusting that all things good come from God alone, then we realize that all mercy, all mercy that we receive, comes from God. In my life, I want God prompting people to offer me mercy when I need it most. I want others to know God’s mercy through me.
Someone along the years of your life, no matter how young or old you are, has shown you God’s mercy – or I very much doubt that you would be sitting here today.
The Psalmist writes in Psalm 124:
To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants look
to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon us, O LORD,
have mercy upon us, for
we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than its fill of
the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.

Do you know what contempt means? It is ‘a powerful feeling of dislike toward somebody considered to be worthless, inferior, or undeserving of respect.’ The psalmist writes, “We have had more than our share of people treating us like we’re not worthy of respect. We’ve had our fill of people who consider us to be inferior to them.”
May we never be those who show contempt for those who need mercy. May we never be so prideful that we are not merciful.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

03-18-2007