May 10, 2009: Jesus Redefines Truth

John 4:1-30

In continuing our series, entitled, "Life With God...It's Not What You Think," this week we plunged into the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, and were challenged to wrestle a bit with our past. Does Jesus have anything to say when it comes to the big mistakes & regrets in our lives? Is there hope for a different kind of life, of just more empty religious promises? Come find out...

You can listen to this and all of our published recordings as a podcast in iTunes by clicking here, or you can click here (27:48, 20.7 MB) to download and listen to this recording directly.

Doing Justice & Loving Mercy

“When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint.  When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist.”  

-Dom Helder Camara, Catholic Bishop

As Christians in America, we struggle here, don’t we?  I mean, think about it...  How many of you are overjoyed at the fact that title of this blog includes the word “justice”?  I would guess that many of us struggle with this because of the baggage that such a term normally includes.  And yet, in the Christian life, I do not exaggerate to say that there should be NOTHING more joy evoking, than a discussion on these topics!  Because the marriage of justice with mercy is the only reason why any of us are still alive (I’ll explain more on this in a minute)!  

SO WHY THE DISCONNECT?  I would argue it is simply an issue of a little article... AND.  

Take a look at this passage from Micah 6:

¹ Listen to what the LORD says: 
       "Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; 
       let the hills hear what you have to say.

 ² Hear, O mountains, the LORD's accusation; 
       listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. 
       For the LORD has a case against his people; 
       he is lodging a charge against Israel.

 ³ "My people, what have I done to you? 
       How have I burdened you? Answer me.

 ⁴ I brought you up out of Egypt 
       and redeemed you from the land of slavery. 
       I sent Moses to lead you, 
       also Aaron and Miriam.

 ⁵ My people, remember 
       what Balak king of Moab counseled 
       and what Balaam son of Beor answered. 
       Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, 
       that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD."

 ⁶ With what shall I come before the LORD 
       and bow down before the exalted God? 
       Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, 
       with calves a year old?

 ⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, 
       with ten thousand rivers of oil? 
       Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, 
       the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

 ⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good. 
       And what does the LORD require of you? 
       To act justly and to love mercy 
       and to walk humbly with your God.

In the above passage, God says here’s what’s good- that we do justice AND love mercy...and yet, how many of us read this/live this as doing justice OR loving mercy?!   Let me explain...

Some of us are JUSTICE PEOPLE-- We work hard to get the quality of life we want for ourselves.  We are good/moral people.  And we expect those around us to live accordingly.  If they do, they’ll have the good things in life, like we do...and if they don’t they only have themselves to blame for their crappy lives. We’re not looking for a handout, and it really irks us when others seem to be... Is that you?  

Because if it is, realize that what we justice people tend to forget is that birth & consequent opportunities in education & occupation are not morally, educationally or fiscally neutral circumstances!!  But instead, those are all major factors in whether or not it’s even possible to dream the right dreams for my future, let alone achieve them!  

Think about it...Is it justice when a 16-year-old boy drops out of HS because he has no motivation to keep going to class. When he’s never met his father, has watched his mother use illicit drugs from his earliest memories, lives in Section 8 housing, and barely has enough money for food, let alone any thoughts of college or a better life.  Is that REALLY justice for that child?  Or are we hiding behind the idea of justice, to justify the injustice we enjoy because of our privileged birth & experiences?  Is it justice, or actually incredible mercy that has given us the life we now live?  

But you know, the same point can be made the other way.  Because there are others of us, who are MERCY PEOPLE.  We tend to be those who are truly broken over issues of poverty and injustice, and we spend our time & money trying to help the marginalized in our society.  We’re the ones who do a ton of community service and political activism...even taking lesser paying jobs to have more opportunity to make a difference in society.When we’re most honest, we tend not to like “Justice People”...and they tend not to like us either! 

Is that you??  If so, realize that you are probably a whole lot more like the Justice People than you think!  

Because, you see, we mercy people tend to be ones who forget that a heart for the poor & needy is not an innate part of who we are!  Just like the justice people, we live as though the influences and circumstances in our lives that developed in us a heart to serve, are not in and of themselves, a merciful gift!  

If you’re a parent or even just friends with someone who has kids, you know that from our earliest days of life, we don’t need anyone to teach us to be selfish...that’s kind of built in to who we are from day one.  I’ll demonstrate with TWO WORDS: MINE! and NO!  Enough said, right?  

We don’t need be taught to look out for ourselves, we need guidance on how to look beyond ourselves to the interests of others.  So whether it is the teaching of parents or other role models, or other life experiences, it is actually a merciful gift from God to have a desire to care for the needy...not a desire that we all just have and some choose to ignore!  

Thing about it...Is it merciful to expect a 16-year-old, rich, Rockland County kid (whose parents work really hard to give him the best of everything!) to have a heart for the poor, when the only place he’s EVER had any experience with the poor is in driving through Spring Valley...the very area of town he’s avoid as much as possible?  Are we exhibiting mercy towards that child, or injustice, when we expect that kid to think the way we do, without having the same experiences we’ve had.  

You see, no matter which way the scale in your life tips...towards justice or towards mercy...the end result in both cases is the same---injustice, and a lack of mercy.  

But that’s where Christ walks into the picture to show us another way...the way of the gospel!  

In our passage for this afternoon, Micah is speaking to a people who are in an incredibly privileged position--they have been chosen by God from among all the nations of the world, to be His people, and to show the world the who God is by how they live their lives.  And they’ve seriously messed it up!  Instead of being a nation that is humbled by the mercy they have received from God, they are prideful about it.  They take for granted their privileged position, and begin to live as those who deserve God’s love & blessings...changing what is truly mercy into some false sense of justice.  

And on top of that, their privileged position has suddenly become the bar by which they judge others, rather than the vehicle through which they share God’s blessings with others, and God calls them out on it! Does that sound like anyone else you might know?

Well, God sends a messenger/prophet, Micah, with a very pointed message.  In vv1-3, God turns to the mountains & hills...to all of creation as a witness of the mercy & grace His people have received above all others.  Essentially, He says, it’s SOOOO clear to all of creation how privileged you are to have what you have, that you have no defense/case for living the way you’re living!  

Then in vv4-5 He says, here’s how you know that what you are living in is mercy & not justice...that you’ve NOT been given what you deserve/earned...the Exodus.  The ONE EVENT in the history of Israel that forever shaped her existence, that ALL of the Torah looks back to, when God freed His people from slavery and brought them to the Promised Land.  The one moment in their history when they were most helpless, and when God displayed His mercy most clearly.

God points to that event and says, REMEMBER who you are without me and my blessings...and now ask yourself if your heart is in the right spot with regard to others.  

You see, the Exodus was an event like no other for God’s grace & mercy to be on display.  Because the Exodus was all about God doing for His children what they could never do for themselves. They were literally slaves to the most powerful nation in the world!  The king/Pharaoh, was literally taking measures to systematically kill off all of Israel in one generation.  And all they could do was cry out!  No amount of hard work or self-improvement was going to fix this problem...they were helpless!

And here in this passage in Micah, God says...remember that!  Remember what mercy is all about...it’s not letting you get what you deserve, but giving you what you could never get for yourself!  

And realize that this is not “in general”, but a call to remember the main event of the Exodus...the Passover...where mercy took definite shape!  Because it is at the Passover where God sent His Spirit of judgment through Egypt and instructed the Israelites that they too would die, unless the blood of a perfect lamb was spread over their home.  If the blood was there, then the Spirit of Judgment would pass over the home.  But if not, then death would come.  And all the Israelites needed to do was listen as the Egyptians cried out, to realize SUCH is what they too deserved, but for the lamb whose blood protected them!  

Realize that as those living on this side of the cross, we have the privilege of seeing the reality that the first Exodus was meant to point Israel (and the whole world), to a second/greater Exodus...where God sent His Spirit of judgement upon Himself, because He knew that the only way for His people to live was for the Lamb of God to spill His own blood as a ransom...to die unjustly, so that we could live, mercifully!  

That’s the GOOD NEWS we call the Gospel, that changes our lives!  

And then in vv6-8, God says, in light of this mercy, how should you live?  Hiding behind your religiosity and rituals--like going to church on Sundays, or serving in a soup kitchen, or giving money to charity?  And then turning around and judging others for not being like us?????

Clearly the answer is NO! But by doing justice & loving mercy!  You see, only when you and I come to the cross of Jesus Christ, to the place where the justice of God was poured out on God, so that the mercy of God could be poured out on us...

Only there can we find the freedom & the ability to live as those who act justly & love mercy!  Because there we know what we should have received, but didn’t...and there we discover the joy of giving to others what they don’t deserve either!

The good news that Jesus brought (and is), is that all we need to do to realize such mercy is to listen...to the stories of person after person who, like the Egyptians, has no answer to the death in them and around them...and to realize that what we’ve been given is sheer mercy!  

Such mercy cannot help but produce joy in our lives!  And that joy then spills over in service to others...where we work hard to care for the needs of the marginalized (DO JUSTICE), and patiently pray for the hearts of those who don’t care (LOVE MERCY).  

And so as we here at All Souls talk about service to the poor & marginalized in Nanuet, Rockland, and the world...and you feel yourself struggling with Justice OR Mercy, remember that Jesus Christ died to make us into a people of Justice AND Mercy, because only there, will we be a people that move beyond mere ideology, into REAL, POWERFUL, RENEWED LIFE!  

My challenge then is for each of us to have open eyes--to ask God to show us where we are not living like those who have lived through the Exodus, and therefore, turning a blind eye and a cold heart towards the needs around us.  If we want to be a people who do what God says is GOOD- to do justice & love mercy- then we need to be a people who live at the intersection of both and invite others to do the same.  

May God continue to bless us and make us people of justice, because we are a people of mercy!

peace be yours,

Will