The Lord said: “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. Luke 11:42
Jesus got fed up with those who lived a loveless law. The Pharisees were meticulous in their outward observation of the Law of Moses, but they failed its core test to love their neighbor as themselves as written in Leviticus.
Thought:
The only love of God that has any substance is the love of God enacted as love of neighbor.
Walter Brueggemann
Music: Love God, Love Your Neighbor – Dale Sechrest
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:33-37
Mercy sees you, welcomes you, acts for you, abides with you. Wrapped in Mercy, we find the spiritual comfort which allows us healing rest from those who did not see, welcome, act for, or abide with us.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: May we open ourselves to receive such Mercy. May we strenghten ourselves to give it generously.
Poetry: Xenia – Ryan Wilson
“Xenia” is the ancient Greek concept of hospitality, the generosity shown to those who are far from home.
One day a silent man arrives At your door in an outdated suit, Threadbare and black, like a lost mourner Or a Bible salesman who’s been robbed. Penniless, he needs a place to stay. And you, magnanimous you, soon find This stranger reading in your chair, Eating your cereal, drinking your tea, Or standing in your clothes at the window Awash in afternoon’s alien light. You tire of his constant company. Your floorboards creak with his shuffling footfalls, Haunting dark rooms deep in the night. You lie awake in blackness, listening, Cursing the charity or pride That opened up the door for him And wonder how to explain yourself.
He smells like durian and smoke But it’s mostly his presence, irksome, fogging The mind up like breath on a mirror … You practice cruelty in a mirror, Then practice sympathetic faces. You ghoul. Your cunning can’t deceive you. You are afraid to call your friends For help, knowing what they would say. It’s just you two. You throw a fit when He sneaks water into the whisky bottle, Then make amends. You have no choice Except to learn humility, To love this stranger as yourself, Who won’t love you, or ever leave.
Music: The Good Samaritan – Dallas Holm
Beaten, weary, left along the way Dry from thirst ’til word I could not say Then you came walking by and looked into my eyes And saw my need and stopped to rescue me
Others came and others went on by Refused to help or just too tired to try Alone at last I sat, my head fell slowly back And words from deep within me reached the sky
‘I’m hungry, please feed me I’m naked, please clothe me I’m so alone, won’t someone come to me?’ The sound of my words died Oh, well, at least I tried And trying seemed the only thing to do
But no sooner had I stopped and you were there And then I knew that God had heard my prayer I should have realized, and not have been surprised His eye is on the sparrow, so why not me
Beaten, weary, left along the way Dry from thirst ’til word I could not say Then you came walking by, and looked into my eyes And saw my need and stopped to rescue me Then you came walking by, and looked into my eyes And saw my need and stopped to rescue me
The Lord sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives.
Luke 4:18
In today’s Gospel, Jesus zealously launches his universal ministry. He has been rejected in his hometown of Nazareth and revered in Capernaum. Now he readies himself to break in a redeeming tide over all the nations. His ministry promises waves of joy to those who are poor and liberty to those held captive.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: Christ’s ministry in our world has not changed. We are his agents called now to break over our suffering world in waves of mercy, justice, and joy.
Poetry: Tides – Mary Oliver
Every day the sea blue gray green lavender pulls away leaving the harbor’s dark-cobbled undercoat
slick and rutted and worm-riddled, the gulls walk there among old whalebones, the white spines of fish blink from the strandy stew as the hours tick over; and then
far out the faint, sheer line turns, rustling over the slack, the outer bars, over the green-furled flats, over the clam beds, slippery logs,
barnacle-studded stones, dragging the shining sheets forward, deepening, pushing, wreathing together wave and seaweed, their piled curvatures
spilling over themselves, lapping blue gray green lavender, never resting, not ever but fashioning shore, continent, everything.
And here you may find me on almost any morning walking along the shore so light-footed so casual.
Brothers and sisters: Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:17-18
Paul writes that the meaning of the Cross depends on who you are. If you believe, it manifests God’s Power. If you do not believe, it signifies foolishness.
The Gospel and the Cross turn the realities of the world upside down. For those who have falsely believed that power exists in egotism, legalism, division, aggression, vengeance, and greed, Paul says, “No!”. These are only signs that you are perishing.
The power of the Cross is manifested in mercy, justice, community, peace, forgiveness and generosity. This is the path to salvation.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We ask for the courage to trust the contradictory wisdom of the Gospel, and to live a life that reveals the “foolish” power of the Cross.
Poetry: Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross – Malcolm Guite
See, as they strip the robe from off his back And spread his arms and nail them to the cross, The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black, And love is firmly fastened on to loss. But here, a pure change happens. On this tree, loss becomes gain, death opens into birth. Here wounding heals and fastening makes free,
Earth breathes in heaven, heaven roots in earth. And here we see the length, the breadth, the height, Where love and hatred meet and love stays true, Where sin meets grace and darkness turns to light, We see what love can bear and be and do. And here our Saviour calls us to his side, His love is free, his arms are open wide.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be, and favored. Psalm 128:1-2
In today’s Gospel, Jesus really slams the Pharisees! They had to walk away from his condemnation thinking twice about the pretense of their lives!
Paul advises his followers not to “walk in disorderly way” – a little bit gentler admonition, but still a call to get one’s act together.
Our instructive psalm tells us why we should pay attention to the reproofs of Jesus and Paul. It reminds us that to walk in the way of the Lord brings us eternal blessing and favor.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We ask to continually learn how to walk in God’s grace for there is always a new challenge on Life’s pathway.
Thought:
As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.
Rumi
Music: Walk in the Light – Aretha Franklin
Jesus is the light of the world Come on choir
Walk in the light (walk in the light) Beautiful light (well it’s a beautiful light) Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright (Oh Lord) Shine all around us by day and by night Oh oh oh oh, Jesus is the light of the world
I wonder, do you know that this evening Yeah yeah yeah
Walk in the light (we’re walk in the light) Beautiful light (well it’s a beautiful light) Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright Oh Lord, shine all around us by day and by night Oh Lord, Jesus is the light of the world
Oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh, yeah
Walk in the light (we’re going the distance, yeah) Beautiful light (we’re going the distance where the light) Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright (of mercy shine bright) Shine all around us by day and by night (Oh Lord) Jesus is the light of the world (the Lord is the light of the world)
He’s shining (Yes, he’s shining) He’s shining (oh yes he is, he’s shining) He’s shining in my soul (oh yes he is, oh yeah)
Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ Matthew 20:1-4
Jesus tells the parable of the generous landowner who measures out recompense by love not law. Jesus teaches that this new law of love is the Godly means to calculate justice.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to live by the kind of loving justice Jesus calls us to, not by the measurements that keep others in subservience or oppression. We might ask ourselves these questions:
What really belongs to me?
If I have achieved or received much in life is it not by the grace of God and good fortune?
How can I help others have what they justly deserve?
Poetry: from Rumi
When I am with you, everything is prayer. I prayed for change, so, I changed my mind.
I prayed for guidance and learned to trust myself.
I prayed for happiness and realized I am not my ego.
I prayed for peace and learned to accept others unconditionally.
I prayed for abundance and realized my doubt kept it out.
I prayed for wealth and realized it is my health.
I prayed for a miracle and realized I am the miracle.
I prayed for a soul mate and realized I am with the One.
I prayed for love and realized it is always knocking, but I have to allow it in.
Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household. Matthew 10:34-36
I would not have liked hearing these words from Jesus, would you? The last thing I would have ever wanted was to be set against my precious mother! So WHAT is Jesus talking about?
These words are central to Christ’s mandate to his disciples. He is telling them that they will inevitably meet painful conflict while living out his mission. Sometimes the conflict will even be within their families and among their friends.
This is because God’s Peace is not quiet indifference but the striving for just equanimity for all people. This is the sword of discipleship – we must cut ourselves away from anything that turns us from a just and merciful God.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, We pray for graced insight that we may see where the sword is pointing in our lives, and for courage that we may do the necessary cutting to be worthy disciples and build an honest peace in our world.
Poetry: Swords Into Plowshares – Daniel Berrigan, SJ This poem was written in response to the conviction of the Plowshares Eight, of whom Berrigan was a member, for their civil disobedience against nuclear war.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them. Matthew 7: 18-20
Jesus speaks these words to warn his followers about false prophets. These charlatans may be clothed in a gentle sheep’s skin, but inside they are voracious wolves consuming everything for their own gain. They are liars, thieves, cheats, and pretenders.
Yet many people trust and believe them. How can that be? Are we just too naive to see them for what they are? Maybe. But I think it’s more likely that we want to believe their lies because we think we will benefit from them. We excuse their cheating and veiled thievery because it hasn’t hurt us, just the “other guy”. We espouse their pretenses because we mistakenly believe they will advance us as well as the “wolves”.
Jesus knows we’re not stupid. He says there is one clear and sure-fired way to identify a false prophet. By their fruits you shall know them – and those “fruits” should be the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If, despite the rotten fruit they have produced, we follow them then we will end up in the fire just like they will.
An image today instead of a poem
Music: Ubi Caritas – Where Love and Charity Abide, There is God
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of our Creator God, Who makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Matthew 5:44-45
It must have been so hard to hear and accept Jesus’s words in his Sermon on the Mount. These listening disciples had been raised on the Deuteronomic principle “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. What could ever make them turn that principle inside out to do just the opposite of what they had always thought? What would make us turn from this kind of “justice”? After all, it’s even-steven, isn’t it?
In Jesus Christ, there is no even-steven. The Mercy of God is given to all of us without limits. It rains from the heart of God over all Creation. Jesus showed us that there is no place in Mercy for quid pro quo justice. If a disciple wants to love like Jesus, this precept is foundational.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: Perhaps we are someplace where we can watch the rain today. If not we can remember how rain falls without distinction over everything within its embrace. So too does God’s Mercy fall on us moving us to be its agents in our world.
Enjoy the Peaceful Rain
Poetry: from The Merchant of Venice – William Shakespeare
The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: 'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5: 23-24
Jesus teaches a profound lesson in today’s Gospel. We cannot be in balance with God if we are out of balance with our neighbor.
In the “court” of God’s justice, that balance resides not in judgment or vengeance. It resides in a love beyond “liking” — in reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, patience, hospitality, reverence, and service toward one another.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We realize that we can’t like everybody. We can’t feel good toward everybody. We can’t approve of everybody. But we can choose to be Christlike to everybody.
May we grow in that grace, inspired by the awareness that we are One in God with all Creation.
Poetry: One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII – Pablo Neruda
I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself, and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you directly without problems or pride: I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love, except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams.
Lavish Mercy 