Friday, October 10, 2008

God's mandate and measure of maturity

I preached this past week on Micah 6:8, justice and mercy as God's mandate and measure of our maturity. We had a follow-up discussion on the sermon in which someone asked, "Are you equating justice with fairness, that is, equal distribution of resources?" Not really. Justice is more "right(eous) judgment." When King Solomon met 2 mothers in his hall of justice, one lost her child to death's cold grip as she accidentally smothered or crushed the baby in the night during sleep, but she tried to claim the other woman's child as her own. Solomon did NOT say, well, life has been cruel and unfair, let's give this grieving woman this healthy and living child. Nor did he cut the baby in half so that everyone received an equal portion (though he wisely presented that as the way of finding out the true mother of the living child). He made a right judgment, finding out and then finding favor on the real mother. We don't necessarily divide our paycheck in half and share it with the first person who stretches their hand out. But we make a righteous judgment. That might be that we give food or a listening ear and prayer.

That being said, the Bible does say that the poor have a claim upon the time, favor, and resources of the wealthy. That might be that we give them our whole paycheck. The ancient church father John Chrysostom the golden tongue said (paraphrase) that if we withold help from the poor, when we have enough for ourselves, then we are essentially robbing them. The reason is two-fold. One is that we are all made in God's image and God's example and command to us is to open our hands to satisfy the needs of every living creature. Our money, time, etc is His money which means it is at His disposal to help someone else. The second is that anyone we meet who is in need of mercy is a reflection of us, the redeemed. For we were and always are in need of the mercy of Christ, so we who have been shown matchless and mighty mercy from God's throne of grace are compelled to show mercy to others. I was the homeless man. I was the prostitute. I was the orphan. I was the impoverished and imprisoned. God clothed me, fed me, forgave me, released me, and welcomed me into his home. Mercy begets mercy.

We will not ever be "good Samaritans" (Luke 10) if we don't first see ourselves as first needing a "good Samaritan" to first heal us, bind up our wounds, pay for our way and stay. Only if we see ourselves as the wounded, beaten, and bloodied man in the ditch, the one in NEED of mercy from Christ, the good Samaritan, will we ever and always be willing to extend our hand and heart to others in need.

We are not called to just give out money to any who asks, but we are bound to give mercy to all who need. We give and we live wisely, not miserly. We let mercy limit mercy. We do not withhold help because it is undeserved or would eat into our comfort or safety or happiness. We only withold help if it is the wisest and most merciful thing to do in a given situation.

My closing thought is this: God loves justice, delights in justice, does justice daily. We are called to act justly and love mercy. Do we love justice and mercy? Do we even do either? Surely believers and unbelievers alike THINK about justice and mercy. We can't escape the needs all around us that confront us and interrogate us: will you help the helpless or hopeless, the down-and-out and undeserving? Surely we think about justice and mercy, and probably, we think that we're pretty good people, doing our part? But do we truly DO justice and mercy? Is that characteristic of us any given week? At all this past year? And beyond doing, do we delight, do we love mercy? Paul taught us that if we show mercy, we must do it cheerfully.

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