Mercy
Posted on by Malinda Collier
Mercy
Mercy is defined as compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. (OED)
We pray to a merciful God. We know this because it is what Jesus taught. And Jesus taught this at a time when mercy was in short supply. Praying to a merciful God would have been unknown in the first century Roman Empire. Imperial gods were as the Greco-Roman myths tell us capricious and fickle at best, down-right spiteful when vexed - often treating humanity as mere pawns on the divine gameboard. Prayer was offered to appease the gods, not to heal the human heart.
Our scripture is a different story, one most often telling of human failing and divine forbearance and forgiveness. I have this conversation with Father David from time to time, wondering aloud if God knew from the get-go that humanity would regularly and consistently “blow it.” I mean we are barely a handful of chapters into Genesis when the problems start…
We pray to a merciful God. We pray to a God willing and wanting to forgive, reconcile, and redeem. I thought of this during the Sunday sermon, Father David’s word sent me to my bookshelf. Bryan Stevenson writes in his book, Just Mercy, of his work with death row inmates, Whenever things got really bad, and they were questioning the value of their lives, I would remind them that each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.
Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.
Don’t know about you but many times I want to believe that more than I am able to. Surely, I am judged harshly based on my failings, my falling down and acting out of fear rather than love. Broken for sure. Beloved…?
Stevenson continues, In fact, there is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can’t otherwise see; you hear things you can’t otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.
We pray to a merciful God. Thomas Merton wrote, we are bodies of broken bones. All of us. I wonder if this is what set Jesus apart, that he looked upon brokenness and saw beauty. He looked upon a wounded and dehumanized people and saw image-bearers. Mercy was in short supply in the first century. Let it be abundant in our time.