“What does God desire but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”   The Prophet Micah

“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruit than justice.”  Abraham Lincoln

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”  Jesus

“Kyrie Eleison.”  Two words repeated frequently in The Gospels. Two words that speak volumes. What do they mean?

“Lord have mercy.” It is not a statement, or a mere request, it is a prayerful cry.  A cry for love, grace, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, and more.  It is a cry of which Jesus responded, but unfortunately too often goes unheeded by His followers, even in the hallowed halls of individual and corporate holiness.

If there was one element that made Christ and His followers unique, it was the practice of mercy.  There have been other religious leaders who performed miracles, who preached inspirational messages, who gathered groups of followers, who started religious movements, who claimed to be Messiah, and even who purportedly rose from the dead.  But Jesus the Christ was, is, and always will be unique in the practice of mercy.  Mercy is what cuts the legs out from under piously practiced religion. 

In fact, religion is one of the biggest obstacles to the practice of mercy.  Religion is based on the mis-founded belief that God demands something from us.  And therefore, it is only natural that religious people would demand something from others. Religion focuses on getting right, doing right, being right in order to please God.  And therefore if another person doesn’t seem to be living up to those same standards, they are deemed unworthy and ignored, denied, or punished.  Mercy is seldom to be found on the religious road of self-righteousness.

Riches are another major stumbling block to mercy.  Money is an object.  It is a dead thing. It has no life and therefore cannot give life.  Ironic, isn’t it, that so many spend so much of their lives believing that what will give them life is something that is dead?  Dead wealth results in deadening the senses, deadening the soul, deadening the sensibilities, and deadening the desire to live for anything or anyone other than the pursuit of wealth.  In the end dead things bring death to those who have set their hearts on them.  Some of the most miserable and least merciful people are the richest.  In one sense they are rich, in another very poor, existing in the poverty of the soul.

Mercy is the rich spiritual experience of living as the very embodiment and expression of the One who is living within us.  Mercy is the love of God flowing over and out to others in tangible, touchable ways.  Mercy is Grace in action.  But before it can be practiced Mercy must be appreciated.

To appreciate mercy, one must first recognize a few foundational truths.

1.  Mercy is a gift.  Gifts are given freely.  Undeservedly.  Without conditions or expectations.
2. We are all in need of mercy. 
3. We have all been on the receiving end of mercy.
4. Mercy is not a concept or idea, it is a practice.

I would like to suggest the following steps in the practice of mercy:

1.  Overcoming Fear.  Our fear of losing what we have, which includes not only our material wealth, but our very life.  The only way to overcome fear is with love.  Not our love, but the love of God.
2. Putting on the glasses of Grace. 
   1. Seeing Ourselves, and what we have in a new way.  Everything I have and everything I am belongs to God.  In Christ I am a new creation.  I am no longer my own, I was bought with a price.
   1. Seeing people in a different way.   When we look at others, we see them as separate from us.  But they too are the beloved children of God.  Therefore, there is no “us” and “them”, “yours” and “mine.”  It is all “ours”.  Too often we make a judgment about others that is not only unkind but inaccurate.  To do so is to judge ourselves, and often-times be completely hard-hearted.  Each person has inherent worth, that is not determined based on the life they live, but on The Life that lives in them. 
3. Hearing the cry of another.  Over and over, we hear the cry “Kyrie Eleison” directed at Jesus.  He hears that cry.  That cry also comes to us in a variety of ways.  I fear that we close our ears to the cries of those in need of mercy.  We do it as a society, as is evidenced by the cold and uncaring quarantining of those dying with Covid. We do it as individuals, as we cover our ears, literally or figuratively, to those who cry out to us to give them help and hope.
4. Responding with Grace and Love, cloaked with humility.  The love of God is contained in grace and delivered in mercy.  To refuse to have mercy is to deny whatever we may believe or confess about God’s love and grace for us.  But when we respond to the needs of another, we must do so not as one who is better than, but rather one with.  The suffering of another is our suffering.  Thus, the need for humility.

Kyrie Eleison.

Have you ever cried out that way? 

Have you ever been on the receiving end of that cry from another?

How is God calling you to respond to the cry of another for mercy?

How will your life, the life of Christ in you, be different as you intentionally practice mercy?