Saturday, March 9, 2019
Today, in Mercy, Isaiah tells us how to spiritually balance our lives.
Reading the passage, I thought of my Dad. He was a magnificent, though largely uncredentialed, handyman. One of many important lessons he taught me was how to “true up” a panel of wet wallpaper before pressing it into place. This was particularly necessary if the wallpaper had a vertical pattern or stripe. Failure here led to visitors sitting askew on the living room couch, trying to balance themselves out! 😂
Isaiah says we have to be as careful in our spiritual lives. He says we have to take certain measures to “true up” our souls with the heritage of grace God plans for us. He tells us to remove these imbalances:
oppression
false accusation
malicious speech
Wow! Can’t our world really use that advice?!
Isaiah further says to:
bestow your bread on the hungry
satisfy the afflicted; THEN …. and ONLY THEN…
In our Gospel, Jesus calls a man whose career was about all about “balances” – Matthew, the tax collector. Jesus takes Matthew from a world of impersonalized requirements to a world of eternal abundance, calling him to align with the divine scale of mercy.
Are there places in our lives where we are measuring with the wrong scale; failing to true up the lines with God’s meridian? Lent is about checking it out and making the adjustments we need to make in order to let the Light in.
Music: There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy – Frederick Faber
Lavish Mercy 