Structures Can’t Create Mercy

September 14, 2020

Scripture

“And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.””  (Matthew 9:10-13 ESV)

Structures Can’t Create Mercy

Not unlike in Jesus’ day we have cultural conflict that at root may be a disagreement about what produces a healthy society. For some it is tight adherence to rules and regulations, trusting experts and hoping everyone does what they are told. For others it is personal freedom, regardless of the impact on others because rules, regs and experts can’t be trusted. Many variations on those two themes swirl around.

Early on in the pandemic I was quizzing my doctor, who is also my neighbour, as we raked our lawns and handled the first days of the shutdown. The message was every surface is your enemy – so we put our groceries through the washing machine before we stored them in our homes. Now it’s masks to protect from airborne bugs. Nothing malign or incompetent about it - just emerging understanding of what we are dealing with.

Jesus’ culture was rife with all sorts of discrimination based on religious structures that excluded those who were unacceptable to the rule makers and enforcers. The rules controlled behaviour but even the rule makers could still hate with the best of us. Jesus’ recognized that structure ultimately doesn’t change hearts from hate to forgiveness, or malice to mercy.

 Having lunch with the excluded ones who knew their need of his love and forgiveness inspired anger in his critics rather than emulation. Whether we believe the rules and regulations around masks or not we still need the inspired presence of Jesus’ Spirit to inspire us to mercy in our own angry culture.

A Prayer for Today

God of all humanity, in times of violence we see how inhuman we can be.
We pray for those who, today, are weighed down by grief.
We pray for those who yesterday, were weighed down by grief.
And the day before, and all the days before.
We pray, too, for those who help us turn towards justice and peace because we need it. Amen. 

(From Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community Padraig O Tuama)