Equal Mercy

Luke 18:9-14

“Equal Mercy”

28 August 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            Anyone remember group projects during school? The ones where you get paired up with people you don’t like or, more frustrating, people that won’t or can’t carry their share of the load. Those in the group who just don’t try, don’t offer any real insight to the planning and execution of the assignment. It’d be fine if they’d at least participate in the construction of the model, share some of the typing, or just go buy snacks to fuel the mad rush towards completion the night before.

            Yet, despite offering absolutely no tangible help or support in the overall success or failure, they get the same grade as the ones that pull the all-nighters and do all of the heavy lifting over the duration of the project.

            Even if you try to address it with the teacher, the most likely response to your pleading cries of mercy from the all-powerful teacher is “play the hand you are dealt” or something very similar.

            Then you ponder the situation in which you are doing more than required and all of the work while someone else does nothing and gets the same reward or punishment and realize it happens in more places than school. We find this scenario playing out in thousands of places and situations all around us. It makes us mad.

            Then we hear today’s Scripture and realize when we feel that way in our daily lives we are just like the Pharisee in this parable. We’ve done all the work and should be the one getting all of the glory. If life was fair, each person on the project would be rated separately by their individual contribution to the goal. If God was fair and just, then the tax collector wouldn’t receive the same justification as the righteous.

            When we think that mercy and forgiveness in the kingdom work in some karma like fashion, we miss the point of the kingdom. The Kingdom’s economy doesn’t make much sense to us, but I’m not sure it was designed to make human sense. That’s a hard pill to swallow, because we don’t like that kind of economic system.

            It’s hard not to sympathize with the tax collector. He’s at the temple praying for mercy, what we all should pray every time we encounter the divine. He’s also a pretty brave, and brazen, man. In that day, he wasn’t high on the list of people other Jews would want to hang out with.

That’s probably why he was sitting in the back pew, as far away from everyone else as he could possibly get. He may even have been doing everything in his power to find a quiet corner and wedge himself into the building to keep from being seen. A tax collector was seen as a combination of collaborator with Rome and extortionist of his fellow countrymen.

            Yet, for reasons we aren’t told, he enters the temple and asks for mercy and forgiveness. What’s so disturbing is that those hearing Jesus tell the story, as well as us here today, know that he deserves that mercy and justification before God. And we know he will walk away with the mercy he requests and desires.

The Pharisee in this story isn’t a typical Pharisee, in fact he’s probably a humorous caricature going above and beyond what most people do. Jesus describes him in this way to make a point. But, it isn’t a negative point about purity codes, scorn directed at Pharisees or the temple, nor about personal righteousness.

Our nameless Pharisee has done everything right, goes above and beyond what is required of him. He probably isn’t doing this to prove his merit and worthiness of salvation, he knew he was justified before God. He is thanking God for his calling and ability to live into a deep relationship with God. I doubt God was upset at the fact he was listing his righteousness in his prayer. God was probably disappointed that the Pharisee was comparing his deeds with another’s. A fact of the story that most likely shocked those listening to Christ because Pharisees weren’t known back then to dismiss members of the community, even tax collectors.

The real provocation in this parable is the relationship between these two extreme examples. The saintly Pharisee and the repentant tax collector are both embellished examples designed to provoke and prove a point.

The translation of one single word can make a significant difference in how an entire event is interpreted. In verse 14, there is a small Greek word, para. The NIV, NKJV, and NRSV all translate it as rather than. “This man went down to his home justified rather than the other.” Making para a comparative term is a perfectly valid way to translate it into English.

However, para is also the root for the word parallel. Those that remember geometry know that parallel lines travel infinitely together, alongside. In this translation, the two men would leave equally justified and in receipt of the same mercy.

Because parables are not designed to reinforce stereotypes but are told to shatter myths and provoke us, I think the second translation is the better choice. Having the tax collector leave full of mercy and the Pharisee empty handed is what we expect, it’s what we want. We want to see the boastful knocked down a peg or two. We want a rags to riches story, we love second chances provided it fits our narrative.

Both of these men have done things that displeased God. The tax collector stole from family members through his business practice to make some money, but he was just working within the system. The Pharisee has done everything right, even more than expected. He just made one mistake, praying a competitive prayer, and we jump all over him as getting his just desserts. They both need mercy, and they both walk away with the mercy they need.

Isn’t both of them walking away full of mercy the crazier ending, the more provocative way to end the story? It’s harder for us to hear and accept that God’s mercy is boundless and there for everyone. No matter how many times we come to the table, get what we need and still see the leftovers at the table, we’re naturally going to assume that mercy is scarce or only available for those who aren’t sinners. For then we don’t have any control over whom we get to spend eternity with.

Over the last few weeks as we’ve been journeying through these parables, I’ve been reading a book called Short Stories by Jesus. The author, Amy-Jill Levine, reads para as parallel so verse 14 reads, “this man went down to his home justified alongside the other.”

She then states that from this reading, “We see that divine grace cannot be limited, for to limit this grace would be to limit the divine. This unlimited generosity is something many of us find problematic. We are quite happy when we are saved; we are less happy when this salvation is extended to people we do not like, especially when our dislike is bolstered by seemingly very good reasons such as, “He’s a sinner.”

She also explored this parable at play in our group project setting. “The [member], whom we dismissed as lazy, as stupid, or as unable to contribute, may well have done what he could. He may have felt himself unworthy; indeed, the others may have signaled to him that we were disappointed he was assigned to our group. He trusted in us; he trusted in the system. Had we been more generous with him rather than resentful, we would have learned more as well. And what if he didn’t care at all? What if he depended on us, even thought we were fools for doing his work for him? What we do is still worthwhile. We can afford to be generous. There are other systems of justice in which his contributions or sins will be assessed.”

What we do is worthwhile and we can afford to be generous. Where are we like the Pharisee and need to be more generous and merciful to those who we feel are dragging us down or using the system? Where are we like the tax collector and need the system to help us out, need the system to give us a break? Perhaps this parable is Jesus telling us he cares more about how we love our neighbor and spread mercy and justice generously without question rather than how we get into heaven.

A Man in a Ditch

Luke 10:25-37

“A Man in a Ditch”

21 August 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            Another familiar story. Not just to Christians. We even have laws based on this parable. Good Samaritan laws protect those who stop to help injured persons in good faith so that people are less apt to pass by a person who needs assistance. Because in most cases, some treatment is more important than no treatment so countries have developed laws to protect those who are helping as best they can even if they make mistakes in the assistance they render.

            These laws are a result of one way to read this parable. A reading in which we ask, why are we not helping all of those we encounter in a ditch by the side of the road? If others are going to leave people behind without any care, then I should be the one that comes to their aid and love my neighbor in need.

            Sounds pretty easy, right? Back in 1973, researchers conducted an experiment testing how people would react to a similar situation as the one we heard today. 40 students were gathered in one building and after completing a questionnaire about their religion, were told to head to another building to either give a talk on vocation or a talk on the Good Samaritan. As part of the assignment they were given various levels of hurry to make the talk.

            As they went to the other building to give their “talk” they encountered an individual who was in need of assistance. Care to guess how many stopped to help? On average 40% and it ranged from 63% in the low hurry category to 10% in the high hurry category. Oh, and the other important factor; this occurred at a seminary.

            Helping is much easier said than done. So before I get all self-righteous about how the priest and Levite reacted, keep in mind there’s about a 40% chance I’d stop and help depending on what occupies my mind.

Jesus uses this parable to demonstrate we are all neighbors and are called to help each other in our time of need. Those in need are more important than our next appointment, our next task, our daydreaming, our fear, whatever is holding us back from loving our neighbor. Perhaps we can all (myself included) do a better job paying less attention to Pokemon as we walk, and focus more on our surroundings and looking for ways to not just appreciate creation, but to love our neighbors along the way.

            If I turn this precious jewel of a parable to another angle, what I see is Jesus asking from whom will you accept help?

            As Jesus told this parable, the crowd most likely anticipated both the priest and Levite to help out the man. Though surprised at the lack of compassion from the first two, the listeners were waiting for the rescue. They knew this type of story. The third person would be the one who stopped, for the hero in these stories was always the third person. As Jesus told the story where the leaders of the community passed by, the crowd may have started to smile because it was going to be one of them to rescue the injured man.

            But, Jesus turned everything upside down. It was a Samaritan who stopped. Sometimes we forget just how shocking this was to Christ’s audience. It would be like us retelling the story with a paramedic and a Marine walking by but a member of ISIS helping the American lying half-dead by the road. 

            So there is a lingering question, from whom am I willing to accept help? My own kind of people either by race, gender, nationality? Would I accept mercy bestowed by my enemy, the one society teaches me to reject?

            When we read it from this angle, the question posed to us changes from “When should I help?” to “From whom am I willing to receive help?” That is an important question, especially in light of how we find and receive mercy.

            Mercy, by its nature is unexpected. Mercy is a surprise. It renews a life, restores a life, without warning without merit. Because mercy is not what karma dictates, it enters the scene from unnoticed corners of the stage. How many times have I not received mercy because it arrived in an unmarked package? Or, worse yet, have I rejected mercy because the package was unappealing?

            Let me turn this parable to one more angle, this time to the vision Martin Luther King saw in his readings. He preached on this very passage the night before he was assassinated. King saw the characters as having three outlooks on life. The robbers thought, “what’s yours is mine.” The priest and Levite thought, “what’s yours is yours and what’s mine is mine.” Sounds pretty familiar. The Samaritan’s philosophy is “what is mine is yours.” A way of life based on outrageous generosity and the way that lives out the command to love our neighbor.

            King then distills the parable down to the questions it asks of us. “The question is not, what will happen to me if I stop, but what will happen to him if I do not?” A question to move me from self-love and self-worry to true love of neighbor. What would the world look like if the church would first ask the question, “What will happen to people if I don’t stop to help?”

Who, other than the church, is truly there to combat evil in the world where we find it without regard to themselves? Who would step into dangerous places without ulterior motives? Yes, the church has it’s ugly warts and scars from its help rooted in the wrong reason, but that doesn’t take away the fact we are called to step in and care for the other.

King says “what is required of us is a kind of dangerous unselfishness.” Dangerous in that it puts us at risk for many things. Risk of bodily harm, risk of losing material wealth, risk of social ridicule, risk of all sorts of things because we decide to love our neighbor, to love everyone.

Risk is part of our lives and in Christ we are called to take larger risks of love because we have freedom in the knowledge that we are the recipients of the greatest love of all. Let us live into the many visions of this parable such that we both give and receive love from our neighbor, including our enemies, not for ourselves but because of God’s overabundance of love for us.

Useful Seeds

Mark 4:1-21

“Useful Seeds”

07 August 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            Now I’m not a farmer, or even a passable gardener for that matter. But, I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night so I’ll take on the agricultural expert mantle and dig a bit deeper into this parable.

At first glance the parable seems easy to understand, especially as Jesus offers an interpretation of this parable. How we live our lives: on the path, rocky soil that causes shallow roots, soil full of thorns and weeds, or good soil that causes the seed to multiply a hundred fold.

            And, like me, most sermons you have heard on this parable revolve around how to make yourself better soil for hearing the word. We are all looking to be the good soil that God’s word can bury itself in, sprout a healthy sapling, so with good care and tending God’s word blooms and produces fruit of such beauty and magnitude that people can’t help but notice. In this way we point others to Christ and because fruit produces more seeds we now have the ability to spread the word farther afield and expand the reach of the Gospel of Christ.

            This interpretation is important because it demonstrates our calling to spiritually take care of ourselves. If you really want to know how to live into life as a Christian and this idea of tending the soil, in Ephesians Paul describes the life of individual believers.

How do we keep our spiritual soil ready for seeding of the next crop at all times? Discipline. Read God’s word. Ask if your actions are biblical. (Sermon on the Mount, Matt 25, Romans, etc) Group study. Let them tell you if you are living out your beliefs. Questioning pastors and what they preach. Ask if your understanding of scripture can reconcile what you are seeing in the world. Make sure your actions and beliefs are working to bless the world not yourself. Prayer.

Will we fail at keeping the soil always healthy and good? Will we cycle between the types of soil the parable describes? Of course we will. However, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit to do most of the work in preparing our soil, we just have to work with the Holy Spirit rather than fight that work in our lives.

To prepare for exploring the parables I’ve been reading up on parables and how they convey their point. One thing I’ve come across from a few different theologians is that if a parable is only reduced to a moralization, one may be reading it on the surface. How we read a parable is like looking at a diamond, regardless of the angle the diamond will sparkle with the glitter of a rainbow.

John Dominic Crossan described the parable as a story designed to disrupt our understanding of the world. So, how can the parable of the sower disrupt our view of the world or, at the very least, our reading of the parable itself?

While the first interpretation is necessary in our lives, if our focus is on ourselves, we may make two mistakes: not seeing the differing gifts of others and how preparing their soil for a different crop means there isn’t one set way of tending soil or we may start to look at others yield and we may worry that if our yield isn’t as bountiful or as ripe we aren’t worthy.

Just because some seed is left on the path and eaten by birds doesn’t mean that seed has no chance to become a beautiful and bountiful follower of Christ. This is where the knowledge of those who work in agriculture can inform our understanding of scripture. There are berries out there that we all love and enjoy(raspberries and strawberries) that must have a bird eat and fully digest the seeds before the plant even has a chance to bloom. That digestive process breaks down and scores the seed wall in a way that when the seed finally makes it into the soil, it is able to soak up nutrients and water to grow. So even the word that is stolen by Satan can still be redeemed by Christ and bloom into something bountiful, plump, and delicious.

In a similar manner, there are some seeds that need intense, searing heat to start the germination process. The sequoia tree pinecone will release its seeds in a fire. So the destructive forest fires are not wholly destructive. In that inferno of heat and smoke, seeds are released and new life begins that will eventually become towering giants of the forest.

Even plants that are germinated in the midst of a field of thorns and thistles can thrive in those conditions. Weeds don’t necessarily kill off every plant in their path. Even kudzu doesn’t destroy everything. Jesus realized this and even stated that we shouldn’t wipe out a crop because there are weeds among the wheat. Rather, we should let them both grow and harvest them both and then we are able to reap the bounty and discard the weeds.

All of this agriculture talk means that we not only need to be aware of the type of soil that we are made of so that we can better cultivate our lives to be good soil but we also need to understand what kind of seed our soil is prepared to nurture. Maybe I’m corn and you’re wheat. Your significant other may be tomatoes and your family is a combination of oak trees, pineapples, mangoes, and lettuce.

Our soil is prepared and nurtured to provide nourishment for certain seeds. We all have different gifts that it may take a lifetime to understand and for us to even plant the right seed, much less see a bountiful harvest. Some of us have amazing voices that inspire angelic visions when they sing. Others, like myself, take to heart the idea of making a joyful NOISE to the Lord. Some of us will be the ones called to places of deep despair and suffering to sit with the oppressed and fight for justice. Others may be called to literally farm and provide food for the world. Different seeds will produce a varied harvest, which is God’s plan. If we were all the same the Gospel would have no chance of spreading beyond these walls.

Jimmy Buffet does a great job describing this idea of doing the work Christ ordained for us in his song “It’s my Job.” (Play song) 

No matter someone's calling, or vocation, in life we are called to fully live into that calling and do it as best we can. And have fun in the process.

This is one place in which we need each other to help us find the right crop for harvest in our lives. We need those walking with us to help us identify the seed we are supposed to cultivate in the soil the Holy Spirit has prepared in us. Discernment is hard work that can only be accomplished in community. It involves many missteps and sometimes you have to learn something completely new as God as put a new call on your heart.

Now there is one more caution we need to take from this passage. If we only look at the moralizing interpretation, we may start to look around us and make a competition out of our faith, like we make every other aspect of our lives a competition. Don’t get caught up comparing your yield to that of others. You will always lose that competition. Let the yield be what God needs. Your target yield may be one person. But their yield may be a hundred fold. In reality we all share the burden and the yield.

Christ wants us out there preparing our hearts and minds for the task of our lives. We not only need to prepare the soil of our souls to be the most nourishing topsoil possible, we also need to determine the seed that has been planted in our hearts. We wouldn’t want to throw out the harvest God intended. Because we all matter, the Holy Spirit is there to prepare our hearts for the harvest that God as intended for us. We just need to trust in God’s plan and tend that crop as best we know how.