Sermons for the Month
Mercy and Community
By: John Maroni
DATE: July 15, 2001
TEXT: Luke 10:25-37“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." In today's Gospel, we are asked the question, "Who is my neighbor?" The person asking the question is a lawyer, someone very familiar with the law. In fact, he has portions of the law memorized. When Jesus asked him what was written in the law concerning salvation (or what must be done to inherit eternal life), the lawyer quoted a familiar OT passage, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind: and love your neighbor as yourself." This answer was correct. Jesus declared that all the traditional laws, including the 10 commandments, could be summarized in two basic statements, Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself. When I first started as Youth Director, I hung a sign in the Youth Room listing three simple rules: Respect God, respect others, and respect yourself. I thought this summarized everything, believing -- If every member of a community -- whether a youth group, a family, a neighborhood, a congregation, a country, or even the world -- If people would follow these simple commandments, to Love God and to Love others, Youth groups Families would get along Neighborhoods could go back to leaving doors open Wars between nations and religions would cease Prejudice and discrimination would disappear In a peaceful manner, Jesus wanted to begin a radical revolution. A kingdom where order was maintained, not because of judicial laws, not based on fear of punishment, not rooted in social coercion, but founded on the principle; to simply love thy neighbor as thy self. But, "who is my neighbor?" The Bible gives two definitions: One who dwells or is placed near to another Every man to whom we have an opportunity of doing good Perhaps you have heard the saying, you can choose your friends but not your sisters and brothers. In Much the same way, we cannot choose our neighbors. It is easy to love people selectively or conditionally. Selectively in that we pick and choose whom we show love, mercy and forgiveness. Usually we select family members, friends, and people who appear trustworthy to be the recipients of our generosity. We love people conditionally when we attach strings to the relationship. Do this for me and I will do that for you. Conditional love is always a two way, give and take relationship. But, we are instructed to love our neighbors as our self. And when we love our selves, it is without condition and without selection. Because mercy and forgiveness are key elements of Christian love, we must be willing to extend mercy and forgiveness, not conditionally or selectively, but unconditionally to all our neighbors. Who is my neighbor? Every man to whom we have an opportunity of doing good is my neighbor. In order to love a person, or a neighbor, and to bring peace and harmony to a community or relationship, there are two words that every member must become familiar with: Mercy and Forgiveness. Confirmands learn that "forgiveness completes the relationship circle." If Johnny tells Suzy she is ugly and that he no longer likes her. Suzy is offended and the relationship is broken. Even if Johnny begs forgiveness, the relationship remains broken until Suzy shows Johnny mercy by forgiving him. There is an old English story from the time of judge Cromwell titled, "The Curfew Bell Must Not Ring Tonight." In the tale a girl's fiancé is convicted of stealing food and sentenced to be executed at the sound of the curfew bell. In desperation, the girl goes to the home of Cromwell and other elders begging for forgiveness for the boy she loved. Trying to explain he took bread from a market because his family was starving. But, Cromwell resounded, "There will be no forgiveness, and tonight when the bell sounds, your fiancé will be put to death." Finally in deep desperation and sorrow, the young girl went to the Church that housed the curfew bell. There was an old priest there who was hard of hearing and it was his job to pull the rope and sound the bell. "Father, please do not ring the bell tonight. For if you do, my lover will be put to death." He obtusely replied, "It is my job to ring the bell. And ring the bell I will do at Curfew." Not knowing what else to do, the young women began climbing the old steps that led up to the bell tower. Through the cobwebs she made her way to the top. The bell was taller than her as she climbed and maneuvered to grab hold of the clapper. Holding the monstrous clapper with all her strength, as the bell began to swing violently, her fragile body was hammered from side to side, but yet no sound came from the bell tower. Continuing to pull harder the priest did not realize no sound was coming from the tower. Meanwhile the girl received countless blows to her body. Finally, when the bell became still again, citizens from the community and Cromwell himself had assembled outside the church wanting to know why the bell did not sound. The priest was summons and confessed he did not know what happened, other than there was a young lady. Immediately, two men ran up the tower to see if she was there. They found her lying on the floor and badly injured, repeating the words, "curfew bell must not ring tonight, must not ring tonight." Moved with compassion by the girl's actions, Judge Cromwell ordered for her fiancé to be freed. Is this story true or a fable? I don't know. I do know that Cromwell was known to have dealt with crime very harshly in a period of English history when crime was rampid. To restore and maintain order, the English government resorted to a legal system with out mercy. The question can be asked why did Cromwell break down and extend mercy to a common thief. Perhaps looking at the broken body of the fragile lady, he thought of his own daughter. Perhaps for a moment he saw the world through the perspective of the young boy who was willing to trade his life to feed his family. I don't know. But, the point I want to draw from this illustration is that when we are examining the crime or offense of another individual, especially of a stranger or nonfamily member, we must remember Christ's commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. And when we love them as we love ourselves, we will extend to them the same mercy and forgiveness that we would allow ourselves or that we would extend to those we select to love. On dateline last Monday, in a small community, a newborn baby was found frozen to death near the porch of a neighbor's house. For years the crime was unsolved and the community was outraged at the individual who could have acted so cruelly. They pressured the detective to find the culprit and enact justice. Four years later the truth was unfolded. A 14-year-old girl had delivered and abandoned the child while living at home with her family. She was afraid of what her parents would think. When the truth came out, her parents were worried that the community would turn against them for allowing such a tragedy. But, the only good part of this story was that the opposite occurred. Members of the small town were able to forgive and show mercy to the girl and to the parents. Instead of casting blame on the parents, neighbors showed compassion. How could they do this? By putting themselves in the place of the parents. Before condemning your neighbor, as the question, "What if this had been my daughter?" They realized this could have happened to any one of us, no one is immune from tragedy. The baby wasn't their baby, their responsibility, the baby belonged to all of us. How can we bring peace and harmony to our families, congregation, and community? We can start by living out the words found in the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me." In order to forgive a person, we must first extend to them mercy. Justice demands a reward of punishment for offenses. But, mercy requires us to view the world from our neighbor's perspective. And when we allow mercy to work in our hearts, forgiveness will replace revenge. Mercy can only bring harmony to a community where all its members participate and obey two simple principles, Love God, and Love my neighbors. Love involves unconditional mercy and forgiveness. It's not enough for only the parent's to be able to forgive the children. The children must be willing to forgive their parents. The perfect creator created no one of us perfectly. We all have faults and failures. We all fall short of God's glory at sometime or other. There are no perfect parents and there are no perfect children. But my prayer today is that we would become more tolerant of others, especially to our neighbors, not only the ones we like, but also to the neighbors who annoy and offend us. Toleration requires patients. In Colossians, Paul prays, "May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and made you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you." Christ comes to us with his word and sacraments to heal and to strengthen us; he welcomes us into a community of wounded yet faithful servants. What does he ask of us? Mercy, only mercy.
AMEN