blessed are the merciful
Let's continue with our on again/off again series on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, and, specifically, the Beatitudes. It serves as God's perfect blueprint for how to live our lives. We are up to the part where Jesus says, "Blessed are the merciful...".
Our God is a loving and merciful God. We know that, by God's perfect standard, there is not one righteous man on earth. We also know that the wages of sin are death. God must punish sin, but His great loves for us means that we can be forgiven of our sins. Read the account of Moses leading the Israelites to the Promised Land to see God's mercy in action. Read the book of Jonah. The city of Ninevah was as evil and corrupt as any city in the world, but God called Jonah to witness to the people there. After a short detour by way of the stomach of a great fish, Jonah did go to Ninevah, and all 120,000 of the Ninavites repented. God showed them mercy and spared their lives.
Each and every one of us sins on a daily basis, falling short of what God expects of us, yet God continues to forgive us and give us second chances (and third and forth and...) and to show us a level of mercy we don't deserve.
Because of the great mercy that God has shown us, God expects us to be merciful to others. We are to clothe the poor, feed the hungry, minister to the sick and dying, and proclaim the Gospel to a sick and dying world. We are to work to relieve suffering wherever we find it. We are to show active, working compassion that makes a difference. This is what churches mean when they use the word "mission." As Christians, our mission is to be Christ in this world, and we do that by being merciful. Read Matthew 25:31-46 for a perfect illustration of what Jesus means about being merciful and our obligations in that regard.
One of my favorite quotes comes from the great theologian, Roberto Clemente (OK, maybe he wasn't a great theologian, but he was one of the greatest right fielders in the history of baseball!). Clemente was a great humanitarian, and, in fact, lost his life in a plane crash while flying supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua in the early 1970's. The great Clemente used to say, "Anytime you have the opportunity to make things better, and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this earth." It can't be said any better than that.
Our God is a loving and merciful God. We know that, by God's perfect standard, there is not one righteous man on earth. We also know that the wages of sin are death. God must punish sin, but His great loves for us means that we can be forgiven of our sins. Read the account of Moses leading the Israelites to the Promised Land to see God's mercy in action. Read the book of Jonah. The city of Ninevah was as evil and corrupt as any city in the world, but God called Jonah to witness to the people there. After a short detour by way of the stomach of a great fish, Jonah did go to Ninevah, and all 120,000 of the Ninavites repented. God showed them mercy and spared their lives.
Each and every one of us sins on a daily basis, falling short of what God expects of us, yet God continues to forgive us and give us second chances (and third and forth and...) and to show us a level of mercy we don't deserve.
Because of the great mercy that God has shown us, God expects us to be merciful to others. We are to clothe the poor, feed the hungry, minister to the sick and dying, and proclaim the Gospel to a sick and dying world. We are to work to relieve suffering wherever we find it. We are to show active, working compassion that makes a difference. This is what churches mean when they use the word "mission." As Christians, our mission is to be Christ in this world, and we do that by being merciful. Read Matthew 25:31-46 for a perfect illustration of what Jesus means about being merciful and our obligations in that regard.
One of my favorite quotes comes from the great theologian, Roberto Clemente (OK, maybe he wasn't a great theologian, but he was one of the greatest right fielders in the history of baseball!). Clemente was a great humanitarian, and, in fact, lost his life in a plane crash while flying supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua in the early 1970's. The great Clemente used to say, "Anytime you have the opportunity to make things better, and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this earth." It can't be said any better than that.
posted by hondo at 10:26 PM
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