Advent Daily Devotional
THIS WEEK
Lenten Devotional February 28, 2023
Sermon on the Mount
February 28
Matthew 5: 7
What is mercy? Giving people what they need, not what they deserve. What we give them is kindness. Be kind to others whether they deserve it or not. Kindness is what we all need, but what we don’t always deserve. And we don’t always know what folks deserve. So, we always show kindness.
- Ellsworth Kalas wrote a book called Beatitudes from the Backside. He makes this recommendation:
Why not ensure ourselves of mercy, in sensible anticipation of the time when we’ll need it? And the promise tends to be true: merciful people do seem to receive mercy in return. They don’t necessarily receive it from the persons to whom they extended it, but it comes. In fact, perhaps the mercy comes more often in a particular pattern: we show mercy to some person, who then shows it to another and the third (or twentieth) returns mercy to us. But the many happy returns go on with mercy bringing mercy and on and on and on.
That is the Jesus Way. If you give mercy, you are to get mercy. When he said this, Jesus was on his way to the greatest merciful act ever. He was going to give his life for us, who do not deserve it. We are receiving mercy when we do not deserve it. And he says in this beatitude that we are to do the same. And when we do, it will come back to us. That is the blessing. Mercy for mercy.
A few years ago, I was the Crestfield Camp Chaplain for a week. At our last worship service, I asked the kids to write a note telling me of a moment of mercy they saw during their week of camp. Here is what they said:
- “Someone got up from the table and got more ketchup.”
- “Someone was tired and did something on purpose but we forgave her because she needed it”
- “A counselor went back to a cabin to get a girl a sweatshirt when it was cold.”
- “A girl hurt her ankle and the counselors drove her around in the gator.”
- “When Jess (the girl with Down’s syndrome) hurt her knee we all gave her hugs to make her feel better.”
- “Someone needed to learn how to share and we decided that he needed to take last picks. He did not complain.”
- “I did not want to go to FOB (flat on bunk) because I didn’t want to sleep. But I fell asleep. They knew I needed it.”
- “When a camper said she was sick a counselor comforted her.”
- “Someone went and got an ice pack for my friend who had a sore knee.”
- “I got letters in the mail.”
- “I got a picture of my dog in the mail.”
- “We were allowed to sit out in the field when it was dark to admire God’s work. Everyone needed that time.”
- “We welcomed Jess (the girl with Down’s syndrome) loved her and made her one of our own, not because she deserved it because of her disability, but because she is a beautiful, equal person.”
- “People got Frisbees thrown right to them when it was against the rules.”
- “People got extra servings of food when they said they were still hungry.”
- “God really loves us.”
- “Betty and Mike Hilf treated me with much grace and forgiveness after my ignorance at the high ropes.”
- “Getting to come to camp because it feels like freedom.”
- “Getting to go to camp so I could grow and learn.”
- “Letting a girl stay in the clay pits even though she through threw mud, well the first time.”
- “My friend gave me a raincoat (her only raincoat) because I didn’t have a jacket and it was raining. She’s very kind.”
- “We moved 300 boxes of clothing and food for “Feed My Sheep” because they needed someone to do it.”
- “The big kids took it easy on the little kids during the field games.”
- “We got hugs.”
- “They made us drink water even when we did not want to.”
They learn mercy and compassion. They do mercy and compassion. We must, too. That is the Jesus way. If we give mercy, we are blessed.
Lenten Devotional 2-27-23
Sermon on the Mount
February 27 (Replacing previously posted draft devotional Pastor Jeff sent by mistake. OOPS, sorry.)
Matthew 5: 6
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
I have made some interesting observations about the creation stories in Genesis over the years. Here is one.
When human beings showed up, they started out as “hunter/gatherers”. Their lives were basically the same every day. Wake up and start walking. Find plants to eat and gather the “fruit” of those plants. Find water to drink. Stop for the night by the water and eat what you gathered. Get up the next day and do it again. Every day was hunger and thirst that could only be satisfied by hunting and gathering. Failure meant famine and death. That was not a real problem in Eden because God was there to assure we had plenty of each. But then we started to become “self-sufficient”. We left Eden and started to farm. Then we started to create communities – towns and cities. We were not relying on God and started to forget God. When we forgot God, we forgot things that were important to God. One of those things was righteousness. We decided what was righteous, and ignored God’s. And look where that gets us sometimes. A violent and dangerous world.
Jesus says that a disciple is hungry and thirsty for righteousness. Why? Because it is a characteristic of God and so should be a characteristic of disciples of Jesus. This is not just a desire to be provided with righteousness. This is an active search for it. An obsessive pursuit of God’s righteousness.
What is God’s righteousness? Well, it’s what God approves of. Who God is and what God does and so what we are to try to be and do. It includes such things as integrity and virtue and curiosity and persistence, and mainly kindness and love. It asks this question constantly.
“What does God want us to do in this time and place?”
It is the desire for this, the hunger and thirst for this, that is rewarded. While we can become frustrated and impatient because God’s righteousness is sometime hard to find, we do find it, and adopt it, and so are filled with it. But we need to be like hunter/gatherers and look for it constantly. Or else we will die.
When we are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, we will find it, and we will be blessed.
Lenten Devotional 2-27-23
Sermon on the Mount
February 27
Matthew 5: 6
I have made some interesting observations about the creation stories in Genesis over the years. Here is one.
When human beings showed up, they started out as “hunter/gatherers”. Their lives were basically the same every day. Wake up and start walking. Find plants to eat and gather the “fruit” of those plants. Find water to drink. Stop for the night by the water and eat what you gathered. Get up the next day and do it again. Every day was hunger and thirst that could only be satisfied by hunting and gathering. Failure meant famine and death. That was not a real problem in Eden because God was there to assure we had plenty of each. But then we started to become “self-sufficient”. We left Eden and started to farm. Then we started to create communities – towns and cities. We were not relying on God and started to forget God. When we forgot God, we forgot things that were important to God. One of those things was righteousness. We decided what was righteous, and ignored God’s. And look where that gets us sometimes. A violent and dangerous world.
Jesus says that a disciple is hungry and thirsty for righteousness. Why? Because it is a characteristic of God and so should be a characteristic of disciples of Jesus. This is not just a desire to be provided with righteousness. This is an active search for it. An obsessive pursuit of God’s righteousness.
What is God’s righteousness? Well, it’s what God approves of. Who God is and what God does and so what we are to try to be and do. It includes such things as integrity and virtue and curiosity and persistence, and mainly kindness and love. It asks this question constantly.
“What does God want us to do in this time and place?”
It is the desire for this, the hunger and thirst for this, that is rewarded. While we can become frustrated and impatient because God’s righteousness is sometime hard to find, we do find it, and adopt it, and so are filled with it. But we need to be like hunter/gatherers and look for it constantly. Or else we will die.
When we are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, we will find it, and we will be blessed.
_
_
_
_
John McMillan Presbyterian Church
