Hunger for Mercy

Intro/scripture

Scripture

Luke 7:31–35 NIV

Jesus went on to say, “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: “ ‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’ For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”

Pray

My first week of being a pastor in Houston I had to figure out how to do hospital visits. I went with another pastor and he confused the heck out of me. Then I went back the next day to do them on my own.

Splashed with water.

I really did not like hospital days for many reasons.

What I realized is that in doing so something began to change in me. God began increasing my heart for people that my fear of messing up subsided and my pride started to wilt. I realized that in these visits I was actually experiencing a love that was surprising.

Have you ever felt that? When you are giving something, a meal, some money, some of your time and you actually feel like you have received a gift? What is going on there?

This week I was asked to help with the tragedy at the dentist office a week and half ago. And lead a funeral service for Dr. Blake Sinclair.

Background:

Jesus does not meet anyone’s expectation. Even the ones who were behind him. John the Baptist is arrested and he is starting to wonder if maybe Jesus is not the one he thought. Which I understand....even 99% sure would look different when you are arrested and likely to be killed.

So John send a couple of people to Jesus...

Luke 7:20 NIV

When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’ ”

Which by the way, how would you like to be the messenger that is sent to Jesus and goes.... uhmph…is this it?

Jesus responds by showing them the signs of his identity. all the people around him being healed.

Go back and tell them what you see:

the blind receive sight

the lame walk

those with leprosy are cleansed

the deaf hear

the dead are raised

good news proclaimed to the poor

Prophetic promise of Isaiah that this would be the sign of the Messiah.

Marks of the kingdom breaking through....not what we measure church upon.

Then Jesus talks about John the Baptist:

Luke 7:24–28 NIV

After John’s messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: “ ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

John was different. He dressed different, ate different. Talked different. He was the one sent to tell of the kingdom breaking in. And some responded but some rejected and all thought he was strange. Jesus says later it will be the same for him. He will be called a drunkard and a friend to tax collectors and sinners.

This is what is going on with this little mini parable that he gives....

Luke 7:31–32 NIV

Jesus went on to say, “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: “ ‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’

The accusation here is that the Jesus people are not performing in societal expectations. Even the misunderstood John the Baptist is misunderstanding Jesus and the way things would look.

A few observations here about mercy

Mercy is misunderstood

Jesus is is constantly accused of doing things the wrong way. Mercy is constantly being accused of something it is not. Jesus eats with sinners and tax collectors not because he is affirming a broken way of life or because he is somehow condoning sin, it is exactly the opposite. He is going to the sick and inviting them to healing and restoration.

We live in a culture where we are prone to insulate and protect what we have. We live in a culture where we work hard and earn our way. We are conditioned to believe that someone who is poor or homeless or even physically challenged that they made that choice.

We also reduce mercy to random acts of kindness like mercy is just some whimsical charity that we offer to the less fortunate.

Mercy is to see people with the eyes of God and to love them. Mercy is about inviting people to ponder their own inherent worth.

In the gospels this is what Jesus ministry was about and it confused everyone. And when our churches today are about this work it is confusing too. Confusing to the world.

Also want you to see something here: Jesus was not just establishing a church where the lame, blind, lepers, deaf, and poor were welcomed. No Jesus was about healing and restoring.

Mercy is given

And yet, mercy of this sort is not just something we turn on today. We cannot wake up tomorrow and have what it takes to love our enemy or to love the person that is so different than us. God has to give us that very thing.

I spent the last couple of weeks focusing on Augustine for school. So you are going to get some Augustine today. St. Augustine was one of the most brilliant minds in the world. Not just of his day and not just within the church but ever. He was bishop in North Africa and faced some heretical movements in the church. They forced him and the church to really work out some of the things we believed about God.

There was a man named Pelagius in the 5th century and more importantly a movement called Pelagianism. They believed that we had the ability to choose good and choose evil. That maybe God reveals to us what is good but then it is up to us. Angel and devil on either shoulder…this is pelagian thought.

Augustine is going to come down really hard on this idea because it underestimates the corruption of the soul of sin. He found that even as he chooses good, he is still prone to all sorts of shortcomings.

Augustine knew that he must pray for God to “Grant what you command, command what you will.”

Meaning for example when it comes to mercy, it is not something that we just turn on. God must give it to us. And in giving it to us then he can command it.

We think the Christian life is we come to Christ and then we just live some good lives. Hopefully we read scripture and pray a little. No God has given you of his Spirit but now God wants to help you align more with that Spirit. We do that by showing up:

means of grace

repentance

John Wesley understood this about mercy. Acts of mercy to the poor and the lost were a means of Grace.

We get the Wesleyan view on that in a wonderful letter that John Wesley sent to Miss J. C. March in the year 1775. He encourages Miss March to press on in her faith until she knows by her own experience “all that love of God which passeth all (speculative) knowledge.” He then asks her bluntly if she is willing to know how to dedicate her life more and more fully to God. He says,

And are you willing to know? Then I will tell you how. Go and see the poor and sick in their own poor little hovels. Take up your cross, woman! Remember the faith! Jesus went before you, and will go with you. Put off the gentlewoman; you bear a higher character. You are an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ!

The poor and sick experience an act of grace when we show up…but the radical things is that when we show up to love others we are given a love from God.

Haiti mission work.

Wisdom (mercy) has children

When we show wisdom....we prove right this work of Jesus and John. Wisdom is justified.

Luke 7:35 NIV

But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”

Jesus is the embodiment of the wisdom of God. This is a rich biblical theme, that we cannot trace here.

Mercy has children. It is misunderstood by the world but it is noticed. And more than that is points to God. If Tyler began to see the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the poor responding to the good news of Jesus, the dead raised....the world would not simply go “uhm what a church Marvin is.” No they would be forced to see something more.

Hungering for mercy is less about “mission work” and it is more about hungering to join Jesus in what he is doing in the world. It is about surrendering pride and wealth and time and possessions so that they do not have a hold on us. It is about confirming the work of Christ in the world.