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Daily Scripture

In You, O Lord, Justice and Mercy Meet

Today’s gospel reading triggered off in my memory the number of times I have jumped the gun by passing judgment on someone before knowing all the facts — the soft data as well as the hard data. It’s clear to me now that prejudice and bias covered up by pride have a great deal to do with this jump; our comrades can do no wrong; our foes can do no right! Of course, it’s easy to meet out mercy to those we like and easier to meet out justice to those we don’t like.

The words of Isaiah introduce the theme of mercy and pave the way for the encounter of Jesus with the adulterous woman recorded in the gospel of John. The people of Israel had prostituted themselves if not in truth, at least metaphorically. God had espoused himself to them, for better or worse for richer or poorer forever. It was an irrevocable covenant that remains to this day. The people of Israel to whom Isaiah addressed these words abandoned their God and aligned themselves with foreign powers for political and economic gain. In effect, they entered an adulterous alliance and were literally carried away to a foreign land by their greed and lust for power.

In the name of their God, a disciple of Isaiah writing in his name and style reminds them of the great exodus when God led the people out of Egypt through the Red Sea into the Land of Canaan, the land they called home for centuries. In words similar to these, the prophet declares, “You think that was great? Forget about it; you ain’t seen noth’in yet! I’m about to do something even more spectacular. I’ll pave a way through the wilderness and bring you home again. I will forgive your unfaithfulness and forget your affair. Your misery will meet mercy and you will be saved.”

It has been said that pride is the worst of all sins because it distorts the truth of who we are. In fact, pride is a lie. But more than this it is a distortion of who God is. Recall that the sin of Adam and Eve was not that they wanted to be like God but that they did not recognize that they were already like God — made in God’s image and likeness.

There was another encounter taking place in John’s story beyond that of the meeting between Jesus and the woman. It was between Jesus and the woman’s accusers. In was in this encounter that justice was enjoined to the ‘trial’. “Let the one who is without sin be the first to cast the stone!” Their pride blinded them to their own sins. Jesus exposed their hypocrisy as his mercy engulfed the sinful woman.

Was he being soft on sin? Hardly. “Go now”, he said to the woman “and avoid this sin.” Might we not rightly assume that this initiative of mercy effected a dramatic change in her life? God’s saving grace was fully manifested in Jesus. Oddly enough, the same mercy resulted in the hardening of her accusers. They drifted away one by one from the eldest to the youngest but they sought another opportunity to trick him into mercy mending.

John’s story about the woman caught in the act of adultery revealed the depth to which Jesus extended himself to the sinner. “In you, O Lord, justice and mercy meet! [Psalm 85] or in the words of St. Augustine, “Misery meets mercy” in the person of Jesus.

Lent is about opening ourselves up to the saving grace of God but repentance is not something we do. It is allowing the forgiving power of God to touch our life, indeed, to engulf us and point us in a new direction. It’s about God empowering us to goodness and about our initiating a new pattern of life.

Lent is also about dropping stones and the acceptance of the humanity of others, despite their sins and failures. It is about entrusting others and ourselves to the tender mercy of God. More than that, it is about allowing ourselves to become conduits of God’s mercy and saving grace—helping others to find their way out of the wilderness of failure, sin and rejection.

“To err is human; to forgive is divine.”

At the same time, to forgive is not so much an act of the will as a disposition of the heart and in many situations, the conclusion of a very long process. We dare not be presumptuous or simplistic about it.

Forgiveness does not absolve the sinner from taking responsibility for the sin or from its consequences. Thus the mantra, “There is no forgiveness without justice, no justice without truth, no truth without full accountability.”

Here is the story that a rabbi colleague shared with me many years ago. A man went into the temple for the observance of Yom Kippur, which is the Jewish observance of atonement. As he entered the Temple, he noticed all his sins were listed on the board at the entrance. He tried to erase them but he was unable to do so. Then he went inside to participate in the penitential service. As he left the temple, he attempted once more to erase his sins but again was unable to do so. He departed and set about making amends for his sins and then returned to the temple. Lo and behold, his sins had disappeared.

This story is akin to the teaching of Jesus, “When you are bringing your gift to the altar and recall that your brother or sister has something against you, go first to be reconciled and then return with your gift.”

The Scriptures set the tone not only for our Lenten journey but also for our life long journey. Our destiny is not Jerusalem the earthly city but Jerusalem the heavenly city. Mercy is our mission but we must first pass through the gateway of justice and truth. In you O Lord, justice and mercy meet and when they do, reconciliation is complete.

Second Sunday of Advent 'C'

Sunday December 10, 2006

Let’s connect all the dots.

The word ‘glory’ is mentioned six times in the scripture readings assigned for this weekend. “Glory” is the biblical expression for God’s splendor, a word that is also used several times in these readings. If we combine these two words with joy and rejoice and connect all the dots we have no choice but to come to the conclusion that God has left no stone unturned to assure us that we shall indeed “see the salvation of God.”

But where is God in this world of chaos? We connect the dots but we come to different conclusions. We wait for the ‘Day of the Lord’ but it has never seemed more distant. The landscape of humanity has become rugged and ragged. Nations at war, armed to the hilt; religious institutions battling over truth and turf.

But the Advent readings speak of hope and the Scriptures today demand a response from true believers. Connecting the dots will inevitably lead Christians to Christ.

Luke’s gospel is very specific about who Jesus was, when he appears and what he was about. Luke will be our ‘gospel guide’ this year. His portrait of Jesus is a little different from the other gospel writers. His accent is on the demanding but gentle love of God for everyone—no holds barred! In many ways, Luke is an artist who draws a portrait of a Jesus clothed in compassion mercy—a healer who makes the crooked straight, the rugged smooth and the ragged safe and secure.

Luke seems to use his right side of his brain more often than the left and so I have decided that perhaps it would be better to use my right brain today to make sense out of the prophecy of Baruch, the prayer of Paul and the ‘Good News’ of Luke.

So, here goes my attempt to connect all the dots with a bit of poetry:

It has been said
more than once that
only prophets and poets speak “the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth.”

But what is truth?
And how do we recognize truth
when so many lay claim to it?
I suspect it may be more
a question of who is prophet or poet
and who is not.

Who are they who dare lay claim
to clairvoyant understanding of the movement of God
in human affairs?
When in this life of trial and travail
we see only glimpses of truth through reflections
in broken mirrors —
shattered glass upon the grass
remnant of visions shattered by earthen vessels of clay;
windows “stained” in mud
telling stories that belie true bravery
dreams, turned into nightmares,
mythic heroes refashioned by reality
into warriors of barbarism
history revised to shape our thinking into just war theories,
refurbished slices of past achievements,
tarnished by human pride.

“No poets and prophets allowed here!”
cry the king’s soothsayers
“We stand for peace not war!”
We strike only in reprisal less they strike us first
at our borders
or even at our doorsteps.
We dare not rest until they are no more.
“Stay the course,” they say,
“victory is on the way, around the corner”
yea, over the bodies and bones of fallen soldiers
and maimed but unnamed children.
In the face of madness we choose the lesser scandal
a different brand of insanity.

The ‘king’ cries out: “Away with you prophets
with swords of peace.
and words that shatter visions of imminent victory!”

Indeed, war doth make enemies of kin and kind
and strange bedfellows of the divided foe.
Perhaps to truth itself we would prefer
the odor of contentment,
air freshener that takes away the stench of death and destruction.

But in God’s house there will be no exclusions
saint and sinners dwell together,
coming to table to break the bread of their lives;
searches and seekers who yearn for a better way.

So then let us pave the way,
and make safe the path for wayfarers
from those who prey on the poor and the hungry.

Let us tear down mountains of hate
and fill the deep valleys with hope
and connect all the dots for those who have lost their way.

Advent has come again
and with it, the prophets’ promise.

Will Jesus’ coming make a difference this year?

You and I must be that promise and that ray of hope.