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THE QUALITY OF MERCY:
Samuel 26:6-12 Luke 6:27-36
Comedian George Burns attended a dinner given in honor of his
ninety-fifth birthday. The dais was loaded with talent. One of the first
speakers was Irving Brecher, the creator of the popular fifties
television show, The Life of Riley.
Here is what Brecher had to say about Burns:
"What is so unusual about our
guest of honor this evening is that in a profession that is so fiercely
competitive-where the pressure to make it big is so intense that friends
often turn on one another-George Burns does not have a single
enemy." Brecher paused for a moment, then added, "They all
died.” It is difficult to go through life loving everyone. Yet that is
what Jesus says we ought to do.
Love your enemies, do good to those who
hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
Recently Sixty Minutes had a
segment about a Vietnam War veteran who was in possession of a diary he
had taken off a Vietnamese soldier he had shot. He thought he had killed
the Vietnamese soldier. The diary was written in beautiful script and
was very poetic, showing a very high standard of morality. After the war
the American veteran pursued
information about the soldier and found out that he was still living.
The American veteran returned to Vietnam and met the man he thought he
had killed. The meeting was beautiful as the two men embraced and the
American soldier came to meet the many members of his former enemy's
family.
Their love for each other was touching.
When the American veteran returned to the States, he still wanted to do
something for his former enemy who was almost blind from a grenade. So
the American spent his money to bring his new friend to the United States to get the top medical help for his eyes. Although tests
proved the Vietnamese man's eyes could not be completely healed, it was
found that new glasses, glasses he had never had, helped considerably.
To love our enemies is to go beyond our normal limits and to be willing
to let go of that which keeps us from forgiving. Experts tell women not
to hold onto their purse when a thief tries to grab it. Let him or her
have it. Resisting only causes the thief to act violently. When Jesus
talks about showing mercy, he is also talking about reversing the
escalation of hatred. The same is true when we are obsessed with getting
even or seeking revenge. We can, however, break the cycle of violence by
letting go.
"Turn the other cheek, give to
those who beg, give away your coat, expect nothing in return, be
merciful and forgive."
When
David and Abishai infiltrated Saul's camp by night, they found the
sleeping king entirely at their mercy. It would have been so easy to
take Saul's spear and as Abishai said, "pin him to the ground with
one stroke of the spear."But David said, "Do not destroy him;
for who can raise his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be
guiltless?"
The temptation always is to
strike out and strike back, but the quality of mercy is restraint. Human
beings find forgiving others particularly hard to do. This is true in
spite of the double benefit that forgiving someone entails. William
Shakespeare says that the forgiving heart is twice blessed.
In The Merchant of Venice when Portia
tries to persuade Shylock not to pursue vengeance, she says, "the
quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from
heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed: it blesseth him that
gives, and him that takes..."
Forgiveness is not only for the benefit
of others, it is for our
own healing as well. It is transformation. When Jesus said the words
from the cross, "Father, forgive them . . . ," the world was
changed for ever. It not only became possible for us to be healed and
accepted by God, but it became possible for us to be agents of
reconciliation for the world.
Forgiveness changes us, even as we are
changed when we forgive. No one is beyond the pale of God's forgiveness,
not even those who betray God's love. Legend says that when Judas
Iscariot committed suicide, his soul wandered through the universe,
bearing his body and seeking a place for it to rest. Hell would not take
it in; earth would not receive it; the sun refused to shine on it. Judas
could find no resting place in all creation.
The Victorian poet Robert Buchanan describes it this way:
Twas the Bridegroom sat at the
table-head, And the lights burned bright and clear- "Oh, who is
that?" the Bridegroom said, "Whose weary feet I hear?"
Twas one looked from the lighted hall, And answered soft and slow,
"It is a wolf runs up and down with a black track in the
snow." The Bridegroom in his robe of white Sat at the table-head-
"Oh, who is that who moans without?" The blessed Bridegroom
said.
Twas one looked from the lighted hall,
And answered fierce and low, "Tis the soul of Judas Iscariot
Gliding to and fro." Twas the Bridegroom stood at the open door,
And beckoned, smiling sweet: -Twas the soul of
Judas Iscariot Stole in, and fell at his feet. "The Holy Supper is
spread within, And the many candles shine, And I have waited long for
thee, Before I poured the wine."
Can you imagine the Messianic
Banquet with Jesus serving the wine to the Judas Iscariots, the Adolf
Hitlers, the Idi Amins, and all those whom we deem unworthy of God's
forgiveness? Can you imagine Timothy McVeigh sitting down to dinner with
the 167 victims of his bombing in Oklahoma City? Who will be invited to
the Table of the Lord, the "Supper of the Lamb?"
If we are to believe the Bible,
then all who accept the forgiveness of God will break bread with us. If
God can forgive the worst of humanity, can we forgive the guy who cuts
you off on the highway, or the woman in front of you in the express line
with 52 items and a food voucher, or the woman who speaks ill of you
behind your back, or the salesman who lied to you?
The 1984 movie Places In The
Heart ends with a wonderful scene of sharing the Body of Christ. This
film is about life in rural Texas in 1935, during the depression. At the
beginning of the film, Sally Field's husband, the town sheriff, is
accidentally killed by a drunken teenager waving a loaded pistol on the
railroad tracks.
Because the teenager is black and the
sheriff is white, the KKK get revenge and kill this youth. We then watch
two funerals; two families grieve. The sheriff's widow, left with two
small children, Frank and Possum, keeps asking "What's going to
happen to us?" Lots of things happen. A kind black man helps this struggling
family raise a prize winning cotton crop. They take in a blind boarder,
go through a tornado and falling cotton prices. Greedy bankers and
merchants.
The film ends at church. People are
seated in the pews as communion is served; they are celebrating their
new life in Christ. Christ has come to them in the Lord's supper. As the
camera goes from face to face in this climax, you notice something holy
and joyful about the scene. In the pews are not only the living, but
also the dead; not only the white folks, but also the black folks; not
only those who have been kind to each other, but also those who have
done their neighbors wrong. Christ invites everyone to his celebration
and waits for each person before he pours the wine.
Life is filled with many hurts. Those
that are inflicted upon us by others. Those that we inflict, whether
intentionally or unintentionally. And then there is the pain we bring
upon ourselves.
We often say that it is important to
forgive and forget. But it is far more important to forgive and
remember. Forgiveness makes it possible for a community to come back
together, to be restored to wholeness, to be a community in every sense
of the word. To break bread at Christ's table.
Remembering is to take the broken
fragments of our lives and weave them into the total fabric of our
existence. An Indian woman was known for the beauty of the carpets she
wove. No two were ever alike. People came from miles around to purchase
her carpets. "How ever do you come up with such beautiful
designs?" They would
ask her. "You must spend hours taking out your mistakes."
"When I mistake," she
told them,"I never undo it. I change the pattern. My mistake
becomes part of the beauty of my design." Our mistakes, too, can
become part of the beauty of God's design- a God who forgives and who
calls us to be forgiving, to reflect Godly love, to call others back
into communion and to truly be instruments of love.
The quality of mercy is not
strained; it drops as the gentle rain
from heaven and brings healing. It is part of the fabric of God's
love that holds the universe together.
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