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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.

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'A'

Sunday July 6, 2008

Shabbat Shalom

For many years, a Jewish Memorial Home in Brooklyn, was the sponsor of a music segment on WQXR, the classical station of the New York Times. The brief commercial was introduced with an invitation to the observance of ‘Shabbat’—the Sabbath rest—concluding with the salutation: “Shabbat Shalom.”

I suppose it is appropriate for a funeral home to invite listeners to rest, as long as it was not immediate eternal rest!

In any event, Shabbot is a deeply spiritual notion rooted in our Judeo-Christian biblical and theological tradition.

In a world of increasing stress created by stock market declines and rising fuel and food prices, to say nothing about our fear of all out nuclear war, there is little time for R and R—rest and relaxation—except perhaps for a mandatory break created by a power outage when everything shuts down although battery power enables us to keep computers and cell phones alive at least for a few hours.

A study conducted several years ago revealed that increasing numbers of vacationers are never far from their work as long as they have their laptops and cell phones at arms’ length.

The prophecy of Zechariah that we just heard was probably written by a disciple of Zechariah about a hundred years after the Babylonian exile. It is a gentle invitation to his contemporaries to lay down their weapons and look for refreshment and repose in God. It was a difficult period of reconstruction following the exile. There was no king to lead them and they were plagued by the threat of conquest by Alexander the Great who brought Persion control of Judah to an end.

There is still trouble in the world, trouble in the political arena, trouble in the churches, troubles at home and troubles abroad but in the midst of it all, isn’t there a yearning for serenity and for words of wisdom from a higher power?

Although the people of Judah envisioned the messiah as a divine potentate or warrior, the prophecy of Zechariah predicts that in fact he will come in gentleness of spirit, meek and humble of heart. The word meek means ‘not easily provoked.’ This was symbolized by the description of his arrival on a donkey rather than on a chariot of fire.

No tanks and no weapons of mass destruction!
He will rule like a shepherd
and his domain will be inclusive—open to all.

The disciples of Zechariah were working from a different vision of what life could be in a country without war or weapons; a country in which justice would be the great equalizer and peace the common denominator.

Was his vision just a utopian dream or the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? Only the childlike are able to hear and understand.

It is no coincidence that in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem on a donkey, the humble prophet reaching out to the lowly: “Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” [Matt 11:28]

In this same gospel, Matthew points out that this wisdom is not what the world teaches. It is the wisdom that is given only to the simple and to the childlike. “I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to the merest children.” [Ibid. 25]

This is wisdom for the simple, not for the simplistic.

In this little meditation on an ancient Buddist teaching, Jewish author, Rachel Remen in her book “My Grandfather’s Blessings” puts it in a nutshell:

“Life offers its wisdom generously. Everything teaches. Not everyone learns. Life asks of us the same thing we have been asked in every class: “Stay awake.” “Pay attention.” But paying attention is no simple matter. It requires us not to be distracted by expectations, past experiences, labels, and masks. It asks that we not jump to early conclusions and that we remain open to surprise. Wisdom comes most easily to those who have the courage to embrace life without judgment and are willing not to know, sometimes for a long time. It requires us to be more fully and simply alive than we have been taught to be. It may require us to suffer. But ultimately we will be more than we were when we began. There is the seed of a greater wholeness in everyone.”

And so we pray:

O God of many names,
lover of all people;
we pray for peace
in our hearts and homes,
in our nations and our world;
the peace of your will,
the peace of our need.

Dear Christ, our friend and our guide,
pioneer through the shadow of death,
passing through darkness to make it light,
be our companion that we may fear no evil,
and bring us to life and to glory.

For the hungry and overfed
May we have enough.

For the mourners and the mockers May we laugh together.

For the victims and the oppressors
May we share power wisely.

For the peacemakers and the warmongers
May clear truth and stern love lead us to harmony.

For the silenced and the propagandists
May we speak our own words in in truth.

For the unemployed and the overworked
May our impress on the earth be kindly and creative.

For the troubled and the sleek
May we live together as wounded healers.

For the homeless and the comfortably sheltered
May our homes be simple, warm and welcoming.

For the vibrant and the dying
May we all die to live.

May God kindle in us
the fire lf love
to bring us alive
and give warmth to the world.

Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth;
_Lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust;
Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill our heart,
our world, our universe.

[Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, published in Prayers for the World, Continuum, NY, 1996]

“Shabbot shalom!”