Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

All Sermons are © Copyrighted and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the express permission of the author.

The congregational prayer we shared together this morning points to suffering in this world … the reading from Paul's letter to the Ephesians speaks of being in times of darkness … and one of the most well known psalms in our Bible acknowledges valleys as dark as death. These conditions and times of the world that we live in are certainly real! We know the reality of life that Jesus told his disciples of before he prayed for them and for all believers, just before he was arrested and crucified --- Jesus said, "There will be trouble in this world." But, three times in only five verses of our gospel message, we also heard the good news, "Do not fear … don't be afraid." The psalmist declared, "I will not be afraid." Though in the present there will be suffering, pain, lowliness and darkness, Jesus calls you and me to have courage. "But take heart," he proclaims, "I have overcome the world … and I will be with you always!" As we walk through --- and "through" is the key word in the psalm --- through the valleys, we fear not … for, what better news is there than to hear that not one-living-organism from God's beloved creation suffers or falls into the valleys of darkness apart from God?! Isn't it incredible to know that wherever we go our God goes with us?!

But how is it that God goes with us? How do we know? How can we be sure? Perhaps it has something to do with the rest of our prayer this morning? We asked to know His Presence … to know --- so that we may be "channels of God's love and healing." … "channels of God's love and healing?!"

Rev. Boyer has been preaching a Lenten series on the Beatitudes. Today we hear this blessing, this promise from the authority of Jesus to his disciples: "Bless(ed) are the merciful, for they will receive mercy." As you continue to think about how it is that God goes with you through the valleys, do you think that another way to say, "Bless(ed) are the merciful, for they will receive mercy," might be, "Well-off are those who are channels of God's love and healing to others, because they will receive God's love and healing?" If so, might this be one way that God goes with us through the valleys as dark as death?!

The word "mercy" in this Beatitude finds its origin in the Hebrew word, "hesed." This is an absolutely beautiful word. It refers to relationship - to God's relationship with God's people and with all of God's creation … it refers to God's loving kindness for all that is seen and unseen. Recall that Psalm 23 ended, "Your kindness and love will always be with me each day of my life…" We realize the mercy of God then as an active, loving kindness that we do receive and that acts in and through us.

Tuesday, as Paul Gowen, Kathy Garner, I and others worked to get the word out to you about Mary's terrible heart attack … loving kindness immediately leapt into action. You gasped, you asked questions, and you cried. You wanted to race up to the hospital to be with your pastor, who has been there for you … to at least stand outside the door of the room where Mary - the woman in whose love and care for her husband you find such peace and joy, who brightens your day by her smile and her interest in how things are with you, and who displays your picture with a word of welcome for all our church family to see … only a day after taking it! You wanted to be there for Joy, for Kathy and for their families. You have prayed, you have visited, you have called, you have sent food and you have done so much more. You certainly have been channels of God's love and healing … you have been so merciful … you have been God's hesed! And I trust that you have known God's presence with you throughout!

Another Hebrew word that the Bible associates with mercy is "rah(a)amin." This quality of mercy refers to the warmth of the human womb, to a feeling of kinship and of blood relationship. It has to with the quality of love found in God's intentions for a mother and a father; for a wife and a husband; toward a son and a daughter; between two friends; and between all beings and creation. Christians call this relatedness: the body of Christ. It is this relationship that we celebrate as we eat the bread and drink the wine at the Lord's Supper. Mercy is not a matter of obligation then, it is an uncalculated action of the heart in a relationship between people and towards creation. Paul Gowen said on Wednesday, "the outpouring of concern for Bill, Mary and family is not simply out of obligation and respect for a pastor … it is out of true love!" You have been God's rah(a)amin … and I trust you have known God's presence with you throughout!

God the Creator-Father revealed this rah(a)amin, this kinship, by the inseparable relationship between the Son and the Father through the Spirit. One of my favorite verses is found in Mark 1:35, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place … where he prayed." Jesus prayed to the Father through the Spirit; and the Father, through the Spirit, answered the prayers of the Son. Before the Son was taken to his anticipated death, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Do you see what an inseparable relationship and a perfect harmony of understanding and will of the heart this was?! Then, when the Son was on the cross, at about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The Son felt pain, the pain especially of abandonment … as well as physical suffering. Do you see how the Father and the Son were one … how through the Spirit, the Father surely felt the pain of the Son?! …And, that pain, dearly beloved, was our pain, the pain of the world - of the environment, of animals and of all human beings - that suffers under the consequences of sin! God's revealed mercy then was for us and for all creation!

The good news is that of the cross, of the loving kindness of God that was extended and promised to you and to me and to all nations! We know this mercy of God by grace through our faith in the teachings and healings; in the suffering, death and resurrection; and in the promises of Jesus Christ. We know this mercy even today as we too have needed mercy and have been merciful. Each time that you have not stopped to count the cost of extending God's loving kindness to someone who's in need, haven't you received a glimpse of the loving kindness, the kinship of the Father?

It's so clear that God realizes our need to know His mercy in our lives today. And, our need to know God's mercy is made clear to us, especially in our times of darkness - in those times of our own sinful choices and in those times wherein we share the consequences of a fallen world. God's reason for making His mercy known in the darkness then is, as Jesus told us, "so you may be children of your Father who is in heaven" … so you may know and live in the kinship of loving kindness between such a Father and His child.

But, our prayer this morning sighted another important reason for our request --- a reason that we mustn't overlook. This reason echoes the proclamation that no one will go through the darkness apart from their heavenly Father. Look with me at your bulletin, at the congregational prayer, the end of the next to the last sentence. It says, "…so that you may not suffer needlessly." Beloved, the "you" in that sentence refers to God!

The advent, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the advent of the birth of the new creation; the kingdom that has come near continues to come nearer day by day. But, like the birth of a child, it is painful … that's just the way birthing is! We can artificially cover the pain, but it's still there. Yet, what we know by the cross, and what we continue to hold before us in this prayer, is that God also suffered and continues to suffer this birth of His new creation right along with us - wherever there is suffering, we can count on the fact that God is there … suffering with us!

God knows our pain, God knows our suffering --- that's the reason that "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." "Greater love has no one than this … that he lay down his life for his friends." So the reason for our prayer is certainly to be channels of God's love and healing for others, but the overarching reason to be channels of God's love and healing must be aimed even higher … its purpose must be that God not suffer needlessly this new birth that He started and which He continues to bring about. We must continue to respond to God's mercy in mercy.

As we question the how and the why of our dark times then, perhaps we can find peace in knowing they are an important and necessary part of this birthing process - brought on not because of God's will, but because of humanity's choices - and that God is going through it with us! God mercifully brought on this new birth because of His free desire that we turn to Him and live in His warmth, in His loving kindness --- as His beloved children.

And there's a bit more even!

As we experience the giving and receiving of the mercies of God today, we realize, that no matter how warm and kind and full of kinship they are, they are only glimpses into what God promises for the future to those who are merciful today. We can only imagine what is in store at the end of this journey! But, we can imagine --- we can imagine because we know the love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ; we can imagine because of those glimpses we have received into the continued work of the Spirit of God, the continued answers to prayer --- to Mary's smile, movement and verbal response … to a valued life, mercifully still lived!

Our gospel reading tells us that Jesus said, "[These things that] I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs." We are the people who have seen God's mercy in action; we know the whisper of that still small voice that hovers over the darkness. As we witness & as we are a part of the merciful work of the Holy Spirit in bringing peace to our pastor and to his family, in affecting and being seen in the ministry of loving kindness of the attending doctors and nurses, in moving us to prayer and action, in holding hope alive, and in each small answer to our prayer --- as you are merciful, know the merct of God today and hold onto the promise of the future mercy of God. As you are merciful, may you receive and know the presence and mercy of God and may you respond by proclaiming it from the rooftops … for the sake of others, for the sake of creation, for the sake of yourself … and for the sake of God!

Amen