What does our God, who is rich in mercy, make of our world today — and the place of people of faith in this wonderful but troubled world?
Christians are people of the living word of God, Jesus and we are people of the book: What we call the Old and New Testaments in which we find the Gospel, the Good News. We enjoy a Judeo-Christian heritage that includes Hebrew Scriptures, and with Jewish people of faith we rejoice in the good news of God in creation, in the calling of Abraham and Sarah, and the exodus from bondage to freedom.
With those of the Muslim faith of peace and worship we also see God at work in Abraham and in the prophets throughout the ages. Search the web for “Mercy of Allah” and 10 million results pop up.
Why then is there warring madness? Somehow some people of faith have perverted any notion of justice into a life of retribution and retaliation. And there are people who have left the true faith and dug themselves into the hole of fanatical extremism.
How might we live and work together as people of God to reconcile ourselves with God and with each other? It begins with the loving-kindness of God. The God who is rich in mercy.
“God, My King, Thy Might Confessing,” a Christian hymn known in many denominations and with its roots in Psalms 103, 145, 117 and elsewhere in Scripture, rejoices in that thought:
“Works by love and mercy wrought,
Works of love surpassing measure,
Works of mercy passing thought…
Full of kindness and compassion,
Slow to anger, vast in love,
God is good to all creation;
All his works his goodness prove.”
“Mercy Came Down,” a contemporary gospel song by Del Way, also centers on the thought of mercy.
“On the bottom of desperate,
No hope could be found
When I had no answers,
Mercy came down.”
Is there hope for this world? For our children and our children’s children? If so, it is to be found in the eternal words of the prophet Micah: “God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy and kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
What’s our hope in 2015 and beyond? That in our daily lives, in our neighborhoods, and in our communities of faith, we seek to live within God’s commandments to love God and our neighbors, and to act within God’s justice, to love the mercy of the God who calls all of us, and to walk with humility before the living God who sends us out to make peace. Blessed are the peacemakers.
When I was in seminary near Washington, D.C., a wise woman from Alabama embodied Christian hospitality. From time to time she would mentor us with what I call sayings from the South. One of those sayings she would launch heavenward when things had gone wrong: “Mercy come down and help us get right.”
In Psalm 23 we pray we that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life. Might we turn that prayer into action? We will change the world if we practice goodness and mercy each day.
Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, sings of such in the “Song of Zechariah” early in Luke’s Gospel:
“Through the tender mercy of our God,
Whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us;
To give light to them that sit in darkness
And in the shadow of death,
And to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
We have a choice, today. Gather in the spiritual gloom and darkness that leads to death or embrace and share the tender mercy and loving-kindness of God who comes to save the world.
Donald Fishburne retired this year after seven years as rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chattanooga.
Voices of Faith is a weekly column written by area religious and spiritual leaders; if you would like to be part of it, contact Features Editor Shawn Ryan at sryan@timesfreepress.com.