You Are Called to Be Merciful through Christ. Luke 6:36-42 4th Sunday after Trinity

Genesis 50:15-21
Psalm  138
Romans 8:18-23
Luke 6:36-42

            Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen. Mercy.  That's what five judges of the Supreme Court have thought they were showing in their latest ruling.  Showing "mercy" to those who wish to engage in a lifestyle contrary to nature and God's holy will and have a so-called marriage.  Their desire was to be nice, to be sympathetic and have pity on those who couldn't have their relationship defined in a way that is not part of the fundamental definition of marriage.  These five judges felt bad for people who couldn't be seen as equals in the marital realm, and rather than continuing to define marriage as between man and woman…they instead attempted to change the definition.  So now homosexual couples think that mercy has been shown to them. 

            But this is a secular mercy.  What occurred two days ago is not true mercy.  True mercy can only be found in Christ.  It is through the true mercy of Christ that you now can begin to show proper mercy. A mercy that was denied to millions of Americans today in light of the ruling.

YOU ARE CALLED TO BE MERCIFUL THROUGH CHRIST.

I.

            So what does it mean to be merciful?  In Exodus 34, Moses goes up the second time on to mount Sinai to have God give the 10 commandments.  Why the second time?  Well if you recall, as he came down the first time, he came upon the golden calves and in his righteous anger, Moses threw down the tablets, breaking them.  Now Yahweh was ready to wipe the slate clean, he was ready to be rid of this whole people, in fact he said, "go up into the land of milk and honey, but I will not go with you." Basically, a death sentence.  But Moses interceded on behalf of the people and The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." And Moses responded, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

            What does it mean to be merciful?  It means to be slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness and forgiving those who sin against you.  Jesus proclaims our text today to His disciples.  His disciples had grown up with a different understanding of mercy.  The mercy they were taught was love those who love you.  Forgive those who forgive you.  But instead Christ teaches them, love your enemy, not dismiss their sins, but love them.  This is true mercy.

            Today's idea of Christianity unfortunately too often rejects this true mercy.  Instead it holds on to grudges.  It harbors hate.  It refuses to forgive.  Oh most certainly it wants to talk about love.  Why can't we just get along.  You let me do what I want to do, and you can do what you want to do.  Or I will love you as long as you let me do this…where does this kind of teaching come from?  It comes from the blind leading the blind.  I recently had a conversation with a person who asked the question why are our churches not growing?  It is because the blind would rather be led by the blind.  They don't want a true teacher.

            This is the challenge that this church and every church has.  Do we want to be taught by our beloved pastors, or do we embrace what we want to do?  What Christ teaches you today is that it is impossible to be merciful if we allow ourselves to be led by another blind person. 

            So where do we go to be fully trained?  To our teacher.  That teacher is first and foremost Christ, the church's head.  It is Christ who calls pastors into our midst to teach us.  It is here in the church where we learn what is right and wrong, what is pleasing and displeasing to Yahweh. 

            For my friends you cannot be merciful if you do not know your own sin!  And so your pastor teaches, and teaches, and teaches so that you may know.  How is your pastor to teach you though if you refuse to be taught?  Or maybe you say I don't trust him.  In both instances you are saying what to God?  I don't trust you.  For it is your Lord who has placed this man into our midst to be our teacher and proclaimer of all good things. 

            You see catechesis in the church relies on an inherent trust between catechist and catechumen.  It's why children make the best catechumens, because they are willing to be taught and to learn.  As we grow up we become distrustful and so the pastor is forced to create trust, but this is sinful that we cannot begin our relationship with our pastors as one of trust.    So how do you know if his teaching is right?  It comes back to your catechesis.

            Are you engaging in the study of God's Word?  This is the point of Jesus' parable in our text: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?  A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher."  For this reason we rely on our pastor to be taught properly, to continue to engage in continuing his education. A number of his hours each week are to be spent learning, you should expect your pastor to desire to learn for he should desire to be like his mentors, his teachers.  For this reason pastors spend years in school. 

            But it is not to be above his teacher, greater than, but to be like, for if his teacher is engaged in the Word of God, then so also will he.  But what has this to do with being merciful?  Again, you cannot be merciful if you do not know your own sin.  It is why Luther organized the catechism as he did, first the commandments.  Know your sin, know what it is in you that is sin.  Not just in a generic sense, but explore each commandment to see how you break it.  For it is guaranteed we break every commandment. 

            Why does this allow you to be merciful?  Because this allows you to know what you need forgiveness for.  When you understand the depth of your sin, you understand at what great price Christ paid for it by going to the cross, willingly.  You begin to understand the mercy Christ has shown to you.  Jesus has every right to condemn you and I to hell, we are as stiff necked as the Israelites who created the golden calf, refusing to admit our wrongs, like dogs returning to our vomit, but yet he shows and delivers to you mercy.  He not only suffers and dies for you but he gives you his means of grace by which he shows you his mercy.  He doesn't just hand you a Bible and say find it, leaving you as confused as the Ethiopian eunuch.  He gives you pastors to preach and teach this blessed Word, and through Martin Luther you have been blessed with the catechism to teach you. 

            Then Christ gives you his blessed sacraments to deliver his mercy.  He gives you his word, his absolution proclaimed by the mouth to announce forgiveness, he washes you clean  with it in baptism and he feeds you his mercy in, with, and under the bread and wine as you receive his body and blood.  Mercy is personified in Christ in his blessed means of grace.

II.

            Knowing your sin, knowing your need for forgiveness, you can and do deliver this mercy to others.  This is why Christ says, "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"  It is not necessarily that your sin is greater than your fellow saint's but your sin should be obvious to you.  It should look like a gigantic tree piercing through your skull as you see the those ten commandments and realize that they are piercing you with the many transgressions that you have committed. 

            As you continue to grow in the faith and realize your sin, you repent, daily.  Through your repentance you receive forgiveness for all your sins, for without this Holy Spirit delivered faith all you have is sorrow for your sins, you would be like Judas crying out for mercy but having nowhere to turn.  It is only faith which grasps hold of this mercy.  It is faith which trusts in Christ to do the radical surgery of removing the log from your eye. 

            And in great thanksgiving we rejoice over all our sin being removed and it is in this thankfulness that we can then begin to help our brothers and sisters in Christ to remove the specks in their eyes.  For what looks like a speck to us is a log to them, and so we gently call others to repentance as well. 

            But what about Christ's command, "Judge not, and you will not be judged;"?  Ah yes that infamous passage,  "don't judge others," passage.  The clue of this text is in the context of the passage and who Jesus is talking to.  Hear what is surrounding it, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven."

            Now what is the purpose of a judge?  He upholds the law which was not done by the Supreme Court on Friday and makes sure the crimes are paid for regardless of the remorse of the individual.  You see, the judging that he is referring to is first directed at the Christian against the non-Christian.  You and I do not judge the non-Christian at all.  We leave that to God.  A clear example is Paul speaking in 1 Corinthians, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. 'Purge the evil person from among you.'"

            So we are most certainly called to judge those inside the church, we still teach what is sin and not sin, but what is your basis for judgment?  Has the person repented of their sin.  Has he asked for forgiveness?  If so you forgive, if not, you still do not condemn, but what do you do?  you purge the evil person from among you and you still leave that person to God.  You most certainly proclaim what his actions will do to him.  You still remind him of what it means to be condemned by God. 

            How then do you know what is evil and what is not? It goes back to your catechesis.  Again as we are seeing across our beloved nation, homosexual marriage is being allowed and encouraged , those who call the homosexual to repentance are being attacked, and the Laws protecting people from their sin are being overturned as gay marriage has been declared legal by the government.  Your catechesis teaches you that homosexuality is a sin, regardless of how you feel, who is affected in your family by it, or what the media tries to talk you into.  Our desire when approaching this topic is to lead people to see the loving gift of Christ, that he has indeed died for this sin and calls us to turn away from it, just like cheating our employer of time on the job, hating our neighbor or lusting after someone who is not our spouse.  This is calling someone to repent.

            What is the goal of calling someone to repent?  To forgive.  To be merciful.  That is always, always, always our goal.  It is to lead our brothers and sisters back to Christ who is mercy.  Yes your heavenly father is merciful in a way you will never be able to fully understand, but thanks be to God that we don't have to understand it, but instead merely in faith trust it with that Child-like faith, in fact we give thanks because he delivers it to you and me freely.

            This was the mercy that Joseph showed to his brothers in our Old Testament text.  He who was nearly killed and then sold as a slave by his own brothers forgave.  Not because of anything they did to deserve it but because Joseph understood what he was receiving, he had received mercy from Christ.  This cocky, know it all kid, had come to realize that he must trust in Yahweh first and it is through Yahweh alone that mercy was shown to him.  And so this radical thought of forgiving his brothers, wasn't so radical after all, because in Christ alone he was given this forgiveness. 

            Yes, beloved by God, you have been shown mercy.  It is compassion, forgiveness.  It is given not earned.  It is showered on you by Christ, who has performed the life saving action of removing the log from your eye.  In thanksgiving you now show mercy, forgiving those who desire it.  Not to earn it but from a joyous heart, one who has received an amazing gift for that is what Christ's mercy is, it is a gift of God, so that we may not boast.  Thanks be to God. The Peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.