1549AFC120415 – Advent 2 Seriously, please use the links.
Read it online here, please. Part of the Year of Mercy Series.
Baruch 5:8-9 – 8 The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God’s command.
9 For God will lead Israel with joy,
in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:2) Certainly in the wake of the horrific violence we have seen in the past few weeks, we are all in need of Grace and Peace. We know this because we can see that Grace and Peace are so very necessary to us when we are subsequently deeply shaken by these events. We can find comfort in the fact that God provides these two Divine Gifts in his infinite generosity. There is also comfort in knowing that God’s promise includes not only Grace and Mercy, but also Justice and Mercy.
Psalm 116:4-5 – 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, save my life!”
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
We know we can depend on him and his Mercy because of his Righteousness – his infinitely perfect holiness. We can also depend on his Justice – his infinitely perfect integrity. His gracious Mercy and Righteousness pervade all of creation. He created everything, and he alone knows everything (and everyone!) in all of his creation. He made them for us – all the earthlings – and all who will acknowledge that by living for, with, and in him witness and enjoy his goodness and mercy forever.
Isaiah 66:2 – 2 All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things are mine,
says the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look,
to the humble and contrite in spirit,
who trembles at my word.
When there are injustices – the acts of evil committed by those who are not humble or contrite, who do not love Justice and will not be merciful as God himself is merciful – then God himself sends justice without mercy to whomsoever defies him. When anyone refuses the Justice and Mercy of God, that one is cast out and counted among the cursed.
Zechariah 7:9-12 – 9 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; 10 do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.” 11 But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear. 12 They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.
Our text for today from the Book of Baruch – who was the “personal assistant” to the Prophet Jeremiah – says, “God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.” This fifth chapter of Baruch paints a picture of the return of Israel to their homeland from all the places to which they have been scattered by their enemies. We can imagine them “clothed in righteousness,” and praising God for their deliverance. Whereas Jeremiah had previously declared that all joy and safety will be taken from Israel (See Jeremiah 7:34), God is revealing that his plan for deliverance is proceeding because of his great Mercy. It is the same kind of joyous renewal seen in Revelation 21 with the coming of the New Jerusalem.
What does all of this have to do with us today, particularly in light of the tragic events in Paris, San Bernardino, and all across Africa and the Middle East, and even on into Indonesia? What we are seeing is, I believe, the work of those who do not accept God’s Mercy because they believe in a god who is not merciful. Their doctrine is built upon distrust, hatred, and deception. Their way is not God’s way. We have quoted God’s instruction for living many times in these pages, but it bears repeating again:
Micah 6:8 – 8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
The entire Bible continually points to and insists on God’s requirements for humanity. He values formal worship, to be sure, but he values even more the actions of men and women who are righteous, just, kind, and humble. It not just “churchianity;” it is the commitment to living the life of service to God and neighbor which he requires of those whom he blesses. God is always equitable giving to each whatever is most needed for a blesséd life. His gifts are our protection against evil. When we refuse those gifts, when we refuse to honor him by serving our neighbors with justice and mercy for all, then we lose those gifts. We are then subject to the evil that God’s good Gifts prevents from harming us; we suffer the consequences of our disobedience. In times like these, people often quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 – 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. There is still a good lesson in that. Those who violate the innocent risk the wrath of God – and that includes those who ignore God as well as those who oppose God. When we act without Mercy upon others, we can expect that others will not be merciful with us. Jeremiah 22:3 – 3 Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.
What do we do? How do we get out of this mess? Hosea 12:6 – 6 But as for you, return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God. We go back to him with all our heart. We repent. We give God glory and honor in worship and in day-to-day living. We trust God’s Mercy for us and for our enemies. We rely on God’s Justice for us and for our enemies. We do not tolerate evil and give it permission to enslave us, or harm us, or destroy what God has given. We oppose evil. We serve God. We give obedience to God above all others. We give all who willingly disobey God whatever justice he plans for them.
We are, like Israel, in a protracted captivity because of our failure to know, to love, to serve, and to obey our Creator. If we want to look forward to being restored to the blessings of his Mercy and Justice, then we must “rend our hearts and not our garments.” We must make the internal changes that return us to his provident care.
In 1967, I wrote a poem called “Words from the Son of The Preacher.” The last few lines of that piece say:
Earthly rantings then will bore you
‘til at last you see your thought
and fly with fury ‘round the planet
giving more than you can hold
to sullen hands of death incarnate
blindly waving God away.
We have blindly waved God away, and we are paying a terrible price for that – not just in America, but around the world. There is Hope, and all who call upon the name of the Lord obtain that Hope.
Today we have looked at what Baruch gave to Israel – words from his “boss,” Jeremiah. I want to close with something directly from that remarkable prophet. You’ll find it in Jeremiah 17:5-8.
5 Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved!
Pray for the victims and the perpetrators of these terrible acts. For the victims, pray for God’s Grace. For the perpetrators, pray for God’s Mercy. For all of us, pray for God’s Justice.
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
