by Jonathan Manafo | Mar 20, 2018 | Sunday Conversations
This past Sunday we took in Bruxy’s second video teaching on prayer (originally posted in January 2018). Last week we focused on The Lord’s Prayer as a model for prayer today. This week we learned that we can pray with and through scripture. As we read and pray, it’s like God talks a little and then we talk a little, and back and forth. Quite amazing really.
For a short video recap, go here.
For the full video, go here.
Here are some brief notes…
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ~ Yahweh to Joshua (Joshua 1:8)
(“meditate” = to mumble, mutter, or moan; to ruminate verbally.)
Two types of meditation…
KATAPHATIC (assertion; filling; focusing)
APOPHATIC (negation; emptying; releasing)
Today we are focusing on kataphatic meditation.
DINE IN: Where Scripture & Imagination Meet Psalm 77; Mark 4:35-41
GOSPEL SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION & PRAYER…
1. Jesus calms the storm: Mark 4:35-41
2. Jesus’ love for sinners: Luke 7:36-50
3. Jesus’ and the woman at the well: John 4:1-42
4. Jesus welcoming Zacchaeus: Luke 19:1-10
5. Jesus’ Transfiguration: Matthew 17:1-13
6. Jesus washing feet: John 13:1-17
OTHER WAYS TO PRAY THROUGH SCRIPTURE…
Jesus/Bible movies
Audio Bible
Prayer journal.
TAKE OUT:
Praying In The Gospels This Week I will endeavour to pray every day this week…
WHAT: Praying through one of the listed gospel passages
WHEN: ___________________
WHERE: __________________
FOR: _________________ min.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
Small(er) Group Discussion
HANGOUT [Warming Up to the Topic]
1. What stood out to you the most from Sunday’s prayer workshop?
2. How have you been doing with daily prayer this week? Talk about your experiences.
HEAR [Listening to God through Scripture]
3. Read Psalm 77.
a. What verse or idea stands out to you the most? Why?
b. Asaph, the writer of this Psalm, comforted himself by thinking about God’s amazing deeds, not in his own lifetime, but in history centuries before. What stories about God do you draw comfort from?
c. The early Christian Church had no New Testament in print yet. Their only Bible to learn about Jesus was the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. For them, every passage was a pointer to Christ. Talk about the various ways Psalm 77 points to Jesus.
HUDDLE [Making It Personal and Praying Together]
4. PRAY! Take 10 minutes to pray through one of the gospel passages. (suggestion: Mark 4:35-41) Remember to pray quietly, but still out loud, or just in your mind. After a few minutes, come back together and talk about the strengths and weaknesses for you regarding this kind of praying.
by Jonathan Manafo | Mar 13, 2018 | Sunday Conversations
Below is a recap from the (meeting house) video teaching we’re walking through these middle weeks in March.
APPETIZER: Teach Us To Pray Luke 11:1-13
A few tips to start us off…
1. PLACE – Find a comfortable, quiet, private place. (A “prayer closet”)
2. POSTURE – Sit or stand or kneel or walk.
3. TIME – Aim for 10 minutes to an hour per day.
4. VOICE – Pray out loud, even if only mumbling.
5. SHARE – Talk to your Home Church and Huddle members about your experiences.
DINE IN: Jesus intended this prayer to be our Model and not our Mantra (Matthew 6:9-13)
Here is a breakdown and a model to help us pray through Jesus’ prayer…
OUR
You have invited me into a family! Thank you for this love life, this community! Thank you for all my brothers and sisters, including Jesus!
I thank you specifically for… [think of people in our Church family and other Christians who God uses to encourage and challenge you. Let gratitude flood your thinking.]
FATHER
The creative energy of all things… is my Dad!
I am surrounded by your love life.
Help me see your instinctive, unconditional love for me this day.
WHICH ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME.
Hallelujah! Your name is holy. You are above and beyond all the insecurity, hatred, fear, and confusion that is so much a part of this world. You are pure and perfect.
I praise you for… [think of attributes of God that you’ve seen demonstrated over the last 24 hours and celebrate them].
THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE IN EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
Come Jesus and lead me. May your will be done, starting in my life.
Please help me to experience and extend your kingdom this day.
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD.
Father I pray for today’s basics. For me, and those around me. [Take time to pray for whatever needs you are aware of.]
Please fill me with the Spirit of Christ to guide me and make my spirit strong.
AND FORGIVE US OUR SINS,
Thank you for your complete forgiveness and cleansing.
Please bring to mind any way I have sinned over the last 24 hours, since last we talked in prayer.
[Wait, review your day, listen for the conviction of the Spirit. As failures come to mind, acknowledge them, and thank God for his mercy and grace.]
And Father, I now pray this all for my family, my friends, and my church, and OUR sins.
AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO SIN AGAINST US.
Thank you God for teaching me how to love like you love, to forgive like you forgive.
Please, Holy Spirit, bring to mind anyone that I might be holding on to unforgiveness toward, no matter how small.
[Wait, review your day, listen for the conviction of the Spirit. As small (or large) instances of being slighted come to mind, acknowledge them, let them go, and thank God that his Spirit is partnering with your spirit to move you toward “keeping no record of wrongs”.]
And Father, I also pray this all for my family, my friends, and my church.
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION,
Father, I acknowledge that I struggle to resist the temptation toward the sin of _______. Please lead me away from this temptation, and give me the strength to enthusiastically partner with your Spirit as you lead me.
[Take time to think about those instances when you tend to give in to temptation, and picture yourself listening instead to God’s Spirit and making different choices. Invite the Holy Spirit to be your guide, and let yourself sense his pleasure in this partnership.]
And now Father I pray for _______, and their struggle with temptation. Please convict and strengthen them. And please alert me to ways I too can partner with them in their struggle.
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL:
Father, I acknowledge that by myself I can be very weak and often make unloving choices. Please knit me closer and closer with my brothers and sisters in Christ, so that TOGETHER you will deliver US from evil.
Please give me, and all of us, the courage to talk openly and honestly with one another about our struggles, and to ask the loving questions that lead to accountability and restoration.
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER.
Father, before I finish, I want to praise you more. I sense how much you care for me. I want nothing and no one else to be king in my life, to be Lord of my loyalties.
[Return to reviewing God’s greatness. Get lost in the vastness of the glory of God’s power, God’s creativity, and God’s love for you.] AMEN.
TAKE OUT: When, Where, How Long?
I will endeavour to pray every day this week…
WHEN: ___________________
WHERE: __________________
FOR: _________________ min.
– – – – – – – – – – –
small(er) group discussion:
1. What stood out to you the most from Sunday’s prayer workshop?
2. In the area of having a consistent daily prayer time, what rating out of ten would you give yourself? (Take note of those who are more consistent in daily prayer and ask them follow up questions about what helps, what motivates, and what sustains them.)
3. Read Luke 11:1-13.
a. What verse or idea stands out to you the most? Why?
b. How much do you pray with “shameless audacity” (NIV)? What does/might that look like in your prayer life?
c. What is Jesus saying we really “need” every day? What does that look like in your daily experience?
d. What is the biggest hurdle for you to overcome in order to enjoy a thriving daily prayer life? HUDDLE [Making It Personal and Praying Together – in Huddles]
4. PRAY! After taking a few minutes to catch up, pray through the Lord’s Prayer together. Have one person read each line and allow a couple minutes for everyone to pray out loud, yet quietly.
by Jonathan Manafo | Mar 6, 2018 | Sunday Conversations
All we are saying…is give peace a chance. No no no no no. Cut. Stop the song. Shut it down. That doesn’t seem to be enough. We can’t just give peace a chance, we have to work hard to make it a priority, to make it happen, to create it.
We are into the 7th simple line Jesus shared on a hillside. Matthew 5. The sermon on the mount.
Line #7 is ground breaking stuff:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
We could say that this beatitude is most important today – in 2018. But…I’m pretty sure every generation could say this about their time on earth.
We like to compare moments in time with former parts of history, and the truth is, no matter what day or age you’ve been graced or cursed to live in, Peace was and is in high demand.
Peace is like the light, you don’t miss it until it’s gone, and when it’s gone you are desperate to find it again.
Like we’ve asked every week, let’s do so again – Jesus, what are you trying to say to us?
Let’s say this first, “Jesus views power and greatness, not as dominance, but as peace.” (B.McLaren)
How do we know this? For one thing, looking at the context of the 1st century, Caesar commanded people to kill their enemies, Jesus commands us to love them. (Matthew 5:43)
Alright, let’s dig in…there are 2 parts to this profound beatitude we need to understand: Peace Maker, Children of God.
1) Peacemaker
Notice from the start that Jesus isn’t saying that we are blessed when we’re at peace…or…blessed are the peaceful?
Nothing wrong with being at peace; and the scripture does talk about a peace that is beyond understanding. So yes, Jesus is our peace. He is the prince of peace. He gives us peace. Such an amazing peace that we don’t even understand how amazing the peace is.
But this is not what Jesus is saying here. He of course, takes it a step further…or a leap further. Jesus says…Blessed are the PEACEMAKERS.
Blessed are the…creators of peace, those who work towards peace, the strategists of peace, the designers, illustrators, builders of PEACE.
That’s a job title if I ever heard one. Imagine that was on your business card? How would you define that? How would you describe that? I make peace. I manufacture peace. We produce peace. What kind of $ value would be put on that?
But what is Peace? In its simplest of forms? What does the scripture say peace is?
We read this in Ephesians 2:14-17…
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
Peace is…
– Bringing people together.
– Taking 2 divided parts and making them 1.
– Destroying a barrier, a dividing wall.
That’s it? That’s all?
So easy to say. So hard to do.
What does it require from us?
- To do something
- To be creative
- To love
- To build bridges
- To stay in one place long enough to make a difference
- To sit with people, eat with people, cry with people, listen to people, understand each side
Peace, requires all of the Beatitudes up to this point: a poor spirit, a grieving heart, a meek character, a merciful attitude, a hungry & pure heart…
All of these prepare us to be what? Peace Makers.
Bonhoeffer said, “You must not only have peace, you must make it”
What a gift this is to the world – Engineers, Builders, Architects, Developers…of PEACE.
Now…listen to what Jesus says next?
2) Children of God
…and you will be called children of God…
This is where things get cool.
What do children of God look like? Peacemakers.
Who are peacemakers the children of? God.
Doesn’t this sound very much like what Jesus said in John 13:35?
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
So…the world will know that we follow Jesus by? How loud we sing at church? How well we pray in public? How many verses we’ve memorized?
Nope. It’s how you love one another.
And how will the world know that we are children of God? What reflects our family ties? How do they know who my Dad is?
The evidence is this: God’s children are in the business of making peace. You could say…that is our family business.
I was showing off my family to some people I recently met in a trip to Nicaragua…a few things they said were:
One, your wife looks a lot younger than you! (yes she does) and two, your kids look a lot like you!
YES!!! They do!!! And they act like me too. They got my whit and my sarcasm, and my quick comebacks baby…and they got their mom’s heart and her mind. The point? You know they are our kids!!!
Jesus says, you’re not only blessed if you make peace, you also look a lot like him in the process.
“There is no more godly work in the world then peacemaking.” (godly = like God)
If we are part of God’s family, then you likely reflect your Father’s character. God is PEACE. Jesus is PEACE. Shalom (Hebrew for peace) runs in the family. What is Shalom? It is a kind of wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken, everything in its place between us and God, us and each other, us and the world.
Understand, it’s hard work to make peace. Peace making will cost us something. Why? Because it’s not simply enough to keep peace, but to make peace. Notice that the next and final Beatitude is referring to persecution. They normally go hand in hand. Ask any one who’s given their life to peace, they have scars to prove it. Not because of any violence they’ve done, but because of violence that has been done to them.
But remember, peace is the opposite of violence, the opposite of hate, the opposite of death, the opposite of brokenness.
MLK said these very powerful words…
“Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murderer…you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth…you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate. Darkness can’t put out hate, only light can.”
We all have one common enemy? Darkness: that darkness drives a wedge between us.
Jesus is saying that our mission, if you choose to except it, is to fight against darkness, not each other. Then we’ll be blessed. Then we’ll know who we really are.
“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.” (the message)
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
small(er) groups discussion:
What’s the first thing that coms to mind when you hear the word peace?
Jesus makes a distinction between being a person of peace and being a maker of peace? How are both important when it comes to being a person of faith in Jesus? Why the distinction?
What kind of struggles, difficulties or obstacles come with making peace?
What is needed to make peace?
Notice that the next Beatitude is about persecution? Any connection?
Looks like if we want to be called children of God, making peace is not optional? What do you think about Jesus’ connection to peace & belonging to God’s family? What excites you about this? Any questions surrounding this?
Take some time to be creative about peace making…and then pray for peace in our homes, our schools, our churches, our relationships, and in our world.
by Jonathan Manafo | Feb 26, 2018 | Sunday Conversations
In my household, 3 of 4 people need glasses. If you do the math, you’ll know that 1 of 4 don’t. That ‘1’ is me. If you don’t need glasses or contacts, you don’t really understand what the other vision-deficient people deal with. Only those who wear glasses understand what it means to not be able to see clearly.
As we arrive at the 6th simple line Jesus shared with a crowd on a hillside (Matthew 5), he says something quite astonishing: ‘…you will see God’ (if you’re heart is pure)
To be more specific, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
How many people in history have prayed these words to God…or said them, even if they weren’t intended to be a prayer…
“Can I just see you?”
“Can you please show up?”
“If you’re real, show yourself to me”
“I want to see you”
Exodus 33 tells us that ‘The Lord would speak to Moses, face to face.’
How? What’s going on here? I wanna see God. Don’t you wanna see God?
But Jesus says I have to have a pure heart to see God. What? Impossible.
Many people read this and think they’re cancelled out of the equation. Why? Because they’re not perfect. Their hearts aren’t pure. There goes my chance!
Jesus, what are you trying to say?
Let’s define our terms: Heart / Pure / See God
1) HEART
Jesus’ words about heart were revolutionary for his Jewish listeners and even for future readers.
Jews had rules upon rules upon rules upon rules. The OT is full of the most detailed set of rules you could imagine. And just when you thought you figured them out, they added new ones.
What was their purpose? To keep you clean. To keep you righteous. To make you good.
But Jesus blows this idea up by shifting the focus from the outside to the inside. Their were hints about this (e.g. Samuel: God doesn’t look at the outward appearance, he looks at the heart), but it’s Jesus who introduces this with a splash.
Mark 7 & Matthew 15
14-15 Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Listen now, all of you—take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution.”
…his disciples said, “We don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
…“It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.”
But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
Jesus is talking to a group of people who think their outward appearance is what makes them clean or unclean. Instead he says, nope, it’s your heart, it’s your insides, it’s your inner self.
Our heart is a combination of feelings, thoughts, motives, agenda, character…the core of who we are. And just like soil/earth, be careful what you plant there – cause eventually it grows up.
2) PURE
So when Jesus talks of a pure heart, he’s saying, it’s not so much about perfection as it is about purpose.
Biblical Commentators are divided on a pure heart being about moral purity or being about single-mindedness. One is about your inner morals, one is about who or what you trust.
The Psalms is a good place to see this balance. 3 Psalms in particular: 24, 51 & 73.
(24) Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.
(51) Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
(73) Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
(from their we read about the difference of those who trust God and those who don’t, and then we get here…)
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
(a Pure heart is a heart that follows God, that desires God, that leans on God, not perfect, but persistent, not unblemished, but unwavering)
Know this too: a pure heart is also an open heart to God. (sang this earlier)
(3) SEE GOD
This kind of heart is what opens our eyes to God.
We see God when the eyes of our heart are open to see God.
We are so distracted – not able to stay focused on anything for too long. Our attentions are divided.
The writer of the old hymn, Come thou fount, addresses this well in one of his verses.
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
We might say we wanna see God, but deep inside, there are other things that get our attention. We might say we wish God was there, but deep inside, is there something else we put our trust in? We might say we can’t believe God didn’t show up, but was it really him we wanted or some other thing to lean on?
Jesus says, if you have a heart that is pure, a heart that is focused, a heart that trusts, that loves, that is merciful, you will see God.
Seeing God is knowing Him
Seeing God is being satisfied in Him
Seeing God is being focused on the ways of his Kingdom and allowing those ways to take root in our heart.
It’s not just vision but impact and change.
I came across a line from a Canadian poet that says, “I am a museum full of art but you had your eyes shut” (Rupi Kaur)
Sounds about right. God is there. God is in front of us. God is working. It’s us who can’t see him. We need pray ‘Open the eyes of my heart Lord, I want to see you’.
When we say we can’t see God, it’s not because he’s not there, it’s because we’re focused on something else in the picture, in the scene, in the moment.
TAKE HOME…
Eugene Peterson paraphrases this verse so well.
“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.”
Some good questions to ask…
- What is your heart running towards?
- Is your heart divided?
- Has your faith been reduced to an exterior focus or will you let God work in you from the inside out?
When we see God clearly, we see everything else with more clarity. So may your heart be focused on God, pure, whole, so you can see God.
– – – – – – – – – –
(discussion questions)
Why do you think many people over the years have asked God to make himself visible? What is it about the idea of seeing God that captures our attention?
Take a minute and read the verses in Mark 7 & Matthew 15. What do you think about Jesus’ words here? Any thoughts?
Having a pure heart is combination of two things: wholeness & purpose, integrity & trust, clarity of desire and love. Do think we ever get stuck on the moral part of this? Psalm 24’s text is a good one to look at for this.
What are somethings that get in the way of you seeing God? What distractions get your attention away from what God is up to or doing? A divided heart? A scattered mind? Circumstances?
Last thing. Read this Beatitude from the Message. What comes to mind? What is it saying to you?
“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.”
by Jonathan Manafo | Feb 20, 2018 | Sunday Conversations
We reach a part of the Beatitudes where things shift. We go from posture to action, from acknowledging where we are, to determining who we will be and how we respond to the new kingdom values that are making themselves at home in our heart.
Here’s where we’ve been so far in this series…
The 1st line? Blessed are the poor in Spirit (recap)
The 2nd line? Blessed are those who grieve (recap)
The 3rd line? Blessed are the meek (recap)
The 4th line? Blessed are those who hunger & thirst… (recap)
In Jesus’ 5th simple line, he uses Mercy to help turn the page from who we are to what we do…
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (NIV)
“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.” (MSG)
Again, we ask this important question: What are you trying to tell us Jesus? What are you trying to say?
This is the only Beatitude where the word in the first part is repeated in the second part:
Mercy (or Merciful) x2.
Any time in scripture when a word is repeated, we have to pause and wonder – what’s going on here?
What does Mercy mean?
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that Mercy is irresistible love for the downtrodden, sick, wretched, wronged, outcast, struggling, etc.
- We may be distressed & needy, but we take upon ourselves others distress, concerns, humiliation. We SHOW mercy.
- (common definition) Compassion & Forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm or judge. (Like a police officer not giving you a ticket you deserve)
What does it mean to be Merciful or show Mercy?
- In order to show mercy we cannot be afraid of other people’s shame.
- Some would say that being merciful is acting like God does, as the Hebrew word for mercy (chesedh) refers to the ability to identify the suffering of others, going through suffering with others, and entering someone’s difficulty…this word refers to God’s unique quality (in comparison to other ‘g’ gods in the Old Testament.
- This is what God did/does for us through Jesus…
- Being merciful also involves humility and meekness.
- Humble people show mercy.
- Meekness acknowledges our sin to others, and not just their sin to themselves.
I guess the question then is, to whom are we merciful towards?
(1) to me…
The first person I have to show mercy to is me.
Why? Because many of us get stuck right at this point – I HAVE FAILED. I AM NOT PERFECT.
Some of us really struggle with this, things like low self esteem. Our first thoughts when we wake up are: I’m horrible, I can’t do this, I don’t deserve this, if people could really see how bad, dumb, idiotic, sinful I am.
Now, to some degree this is true. You’re not perfect. I’m not perfect. You’ve failed. I’ve failed. But staying there doesn’t help anybody.
Mercy is moving on from the first Beatitude (acknowledging our spiritual poverty) to accepting forgiveness (Mercy) from God.
God Doesn’t See Us This Way!!!
(2) …to others…
The other person I have to show mercy to is others.
- show mercy to others who are suffering/struggling
- show mercy to others who are trapped in sin
The Suffering…
When we show mercy to those who are struggling or suffering, what we’re doing is simply recognizing that we too could easily be in their situation.
It is so easy to forget what struggle is when things are going well.
The Sinful…
If you think people get stuck on their own failures, boy do they ever dwell on how others have failed them.
Instead of waking up in the morning thinking that you’re horrible, maybe you wake up thinking others are horrible. You just can’t get past it. Sometimes it makes us feel better to think about how others are ‘worse than us’. Weird!!! But very human.
That is a BAD place to live. We’re so stubborn because we actually can’t see ourselves in their shoes, and don’t see that we are capable of the same foolishness. The only difference is we’ve experienced grace.
“…see them as true victims, as slaves of sin and the way of the world. Come to see them, not as people to dislike but as people to be pitied. Come to see them as being governed by the god of this world, as being still where we once were, and would be yet for the grace of God…with that in mind we can be and must be merciful with respect to them…”
(Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
The problem with getting stuck here is that the inability to show Mercy/Forgiveness really does become a prison that we ourselves get trapped in.
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you” (L. Smedes)
We often draw lines between people that are ‘worse’ than us, and all that ends up doing is confining us to the boxes we ourselves have put there.
It’s easy to say, he’s this and she’s a that, she’s a CEO, they’re a prostitute, he’s a politician, she’s rich, he’s poor, she’s bad, he’s worse. Those are all lines that divide. Mercy says loud and clear, I identify with your pain, your problem, your poverty, your position, your sin. I will sit there with you, and will walk with you through it.
Two stories come to mind from the gospels. The unforgiving debtor & the prodigal son.
Matthew 18:21-35…a man receives mercy for a debt he owes, then turns around and DOESN’T offer mercy to someone that owes him money….
Luke 15…a son takes his inheritance early, spends it all, nearly dies, gathers enough courage to come back, his father forgives him, receives him, and throws a party for him, only for the older brother to complain that it’s not fair.
That’s point folks. Mercy isn’t about being fair, it’s about showing love. Mercy isn’t about getting revenge, it’s about showering with grace. Mercy doesn’t pick a winner, it actually embraces the loser.
We can all say that it’s not fair, until we’re on the receiving end of mercy, then…then of course we say it’s kind, and loving, and forgiving. And we’re grateful.
Micah 6:8 was a foreshadow of this beatitude. It’s a favourite verse of many people who read the scriptures.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Mercy is a dance that goes back and forth. We receive and we give – we welcome it in and we extend it.
Mercy is forgiveness and humility wrapped up together.
For the follower of Jesus, being merciful is possible, only possible, because we’ve experienced mercy and forgiveness from God. We receive it and we give it.
Instead of forgiving and forgetting. Why not forgive and remember…all that God has done for you.
Take some time today to complete this sentence: I need to show mercy to _____________________.
– – – – – – – – –
Community group questions:
When was the last time you received some kind of mercy or forgiveness? How did it feel?
When was the last time you let someone off the hook for something? How did that feel?
Do you think that showing mercy to ourselves, forgiving ourselves, or at least embracing God’s forgiveness, is part of what Jesus might be saying?
What is easier, being merciful in someone’s difficulty, or showing mercy to someone who’s wronged you or sinned against you? How is the first action connected to compassion? How is the second action connected to our spiritual growth and maturity?
Showing mercy to someone trapped in sin is fleshed out in two ways. 1) For those who have sinned against you and 2) for those who are evidently sinning and messing up and saying all the wrong things to the wrong people. How can we and why should we show mercy in both those cases?
Let’s finish up by looking at Micah 6:8. Read it this way… “What does God want from me?” “He wants Justice, Mercy, and Humility.” How does that sound? About right? Too easy? Too hard? Plain & Simple?
Before someone in your group closes in prayer, take a few seconds and ask God to help you show mercy to someone who you have a hard time showing mercy to.
