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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.

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Orindary Time 'A'

Sunday October 12, 2008

“Feast or famine?”

Enjoying a feast on the top of a mountain is an interesting metaphor. My experiences of mountaintop meals have not always been pleasant. The combination of thin air and mountain fever makes food less appetizing on Pike’s Peak in the Rockies and on Mount Pilatus in the Alps. Nevertheless, the biblical metaphor of a feast on the top of a mountain still has meaning despite the thin air and lack of oxygen.

In our Judeo-Christian biblical tradition, the metaphorical mountain is where God and humanity meet on special occasions. The encounters of Abraham, Moses, and Elias with God on Mount Mariah, Sinai and Carmel changed their lives forever. The evangelists used the mounts of the Transfiguration, the Beatitudes and Calvary to facilitate significant exchanges between Jesus, his ‘Father’ and his followers.

Meals were also the setting for important events in both the Old and New Testaments. The sharing of food was more than a social gathering. It was a significant religious event, a sacred exchange. Those who ate together were bonded in friendship and commitment. So true was this that if a thief inadvertently ate something while robbing a home, he or she would cease burglary and become a meal-partner. More than likely this is a bit of exaggeration on the part of some ancient biblical commentator but it makes abundantly clear the sacred meaning of the meal.

The metaphorical combination of the mountain and the meal confirmed and strengthened the bond between participants and God and among participants themselves. The banquet was tangible evidence of God’s provident care and the assurance of God’s blessing.

In the mind of early Christians, Israel’s vision of a God-given banquet of salvation was epitomized in the meals that Jesus shared with his friends especially in that final meal with his disciples on the night before he died. This is no doubt why Matthew used the wedding banquet as a metaphor for the kingdom of God.

Who were the invited guests in the parable?

I assume they were the relatives and friends of the king’s son and his bride. It was customary to send a preliminary announcement of the wedding to the guests. The time was not announced. I suppose it was similar to the announcement of an engagement. It served only to alert everyone to the coming wedding feast.

But when the invitation arrived, those who had been invited were too busy. This should not be too difficult to understand. Who among us has not made similar choices? We are all busy people with an outrageous daily agenda that often threatens our timetable and table time with God. It’s not that we are up to no good. Indeed, we may be up to much good but in the process fail to appreciate the importance of table talk with God and with the other members of our faith family.

Then again, perhaps they were put off by the prospect of loud music by the band. I have attended wedding receptions during which the band was so loud that the guests had to go to the lobby to talk. Whenever I am invited to invoke the blessing at a wedding reception, I add a prayer, tongue-in-cheek, for the wonderful musicians – that the music will be loud enough to have fun and soft enough for us to talk! Everyone applauds except the musicians, of course.

In the face of the Jewish Law, Jesus redefined the protocol for the feast and established the guest list for the ultimate banquet, the symbol of the solidarity to be enjoyed by all the members of God’s ‘kindom.’

The feast is open to everyone—to rich and poor, young and old, saint and sinner. It is a table at which everyone has a place and where all the other tables of humanity are connected. We’re in good company!

When I was a pastor, I used to ask the children, “Where is the most important table in the parish?” They would point to the Eucharist table. Then I would ask them where is the second most important table in the parish? And they would respond, at home. And the third most important table? With a bit of prompting, they would respond, the table of humanity. Then I would tell them to “keep the tables connected.”

We need to bring our family stories to this table and we need to bring the God stories to our family table so that we can reach out in service to the tables of humanity wherever the need is the greatest.

I always enjoyed mealtime at home. Every meal was special and had its particular ritual but long Sunday breakfasts, longer Sunday dinners, and family parties whenever they occurred were the best. Most of these gatherings took place around our table in our oversized kitchen where everyone gathered for talk, laughs, music and dance and of course, a good meal. There were no videos or DVDs in those days, just a couple of box cameras and faded photos. The memories are more colorful and much more lasting.

At God’s table, no one goes hungry; enemies find ways to converse. Bridges are built between disparate nations. It is where justice and mercy meet.

In a polarized world in which the forces of nature and the apocalyptic rhetoric of Armageddon seems to be moving us inevitably toward a world conflagration, physical as well as financial. God cries out from the mountaintop: “Stop your bickering; take the higher road, come to the table and know that there is wisdom a-plenty for everyone.”

In a church wounded by sin and torn by dissent, God cries out, “Cast your care upon me and know that in me your souls will find rest.”

Now more than ever, we need to break the bread of God’s wisdom and share the bread of God’s life that together we may find the courage to confront those who would divide us further and the compassion to heal the hurts that have torn open the wounds of the Christ who lived faithfully and died freely so that we might be free to be faithful.

But what about the ‘friend’ that came in without a wedding garment? What was that all about?

Commentators differ on the details but all seem to agree that it was Matthew’s way of reinforcing the demands of the gospel – unless you take up your cross daily and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. In other words, we need to arrive at table with the proper mindset and our hearts ready to absorb the mystery that unfolds in this assembly every week, indeed, every day.

We need to do our homework. We must be willing to seek the truth that brings freedom. We must climb the mountain where God dwells so that we might be able to see the world as God sees the world. We must not hide behind the façade of hypocrisy nor behind pious words that sound sweet but are nothing more than cotton candy with no substance, devoid of meaning—empty rhetoric. We must be willing to challenge the arrogance of political and religious leadership on both sides of the aisle with clarity and charity. As one of my colleagues, Sister Marie, put it, “Take up your stress and follow me!”

Jesus remains the prototype for us as a church. He is the exemplar of all that we can become as individuals committed to the establishment of God’s dominion of peace.

The key of course is in our daily practice of the faith in little things. To be faithful is to be truly free.

“May God fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father/Mother be glory in Jesus’ name forever and ever. Amen.”