Not only does God give us the gift of freedom from sin and death through the death and resurrection of Jesus -- but God gives us a different gift every Sunday throughout the Easter season. Here to tell us about the first gift of Easter is a guest speaker, Douglas. [Douglas is a good Catholic puppet who tells stories about the faith.] Hey guys, it’s me, Douglas, and today I want to talk to you about being fair - because God wants us to be fair.
Being fair kind of means you do what you are supposed to do: you follow the rules. You give to others what they deserve. And you take for yourself only what you deserve. Like if you are in the check-out line at a store - it’s not fair for you to cut in front of other people waiting in line to be the first in line. That’s not what you deserve - and it’s not what the others waiting in line deserve. So cutting in line IS NOT FAIR. And if you are playing a game – it’s not fair to cheat: you have to follow the rules. It’s very important for us to be fair - that makes the world a more pleasant place. BUT, sometimes it IS okay not to be fair. . . Oh my gosh, you might be thinking – that’s awesome - I don’t always have to be fair - I don’t always have to follow the rules - I can get my way and everyone else can hit the highway! BUT, before you jump to conclusions, let me explain what I mean. My very favorite verse in the Bible is Micah 6:8, which says: “God has shown you what is good - and that is to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Now the first part is to act justly - do what you are supposed to do: Follow the rules, give to others what they deserve, and take for yourself only what you deserve. Now sometimes we don’t always act justly - especially when we TAKE more than what we deserve - but that’s a whole other story. The 2nd Part of Micah’s teaching is to LOVE MERCY. Now mercy is interesting because it can sometimes seem like the opposite of justice. You know how I said you are supposed to give people what they deserve??? And take only what you deserve? Well, what if somebody pushes you – what do they deserve? It would only be fair to push them back, right?? But is that what God wants - an eye for an eye - and a push for a push? It isn’t. God wants you to be merciful. God doesn’t always want you to give people what they deserve. Now if it’s something good - then God absolutely wants you to give them what they deserve. But to NOT DO unto others what they have done to you – that’s mercy. And God wants us to love mercy. And I for one am very glad that God loves mercy. Maybe you don’t even realize that YOU love that God loves mercy. . . But the truth is - if you got what you deserved from God – you could never go to heaven. And that’s a pretty scary and sad thought. You know the Bible says that “God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners – Christ died for us.” We don’t deserve that – and some would say it’s not fair. Because it’s not justice – it’s mercy. Now I don’t know if you realize how big of a statement that is. Basically what it is saying is that God loves us so much, that God is willing to be unfair. None of us deserved to have Jesus die for our sins. Again, the Bible says that while we were still sinners – Unrepentant Maybe even rebellious Definitely walking in darkness – Christ died for us! While we were the most messed up that we could ever be – Christ died for us. The Bible says that the penalty for sin is death – that’s what we deserve if we sin even once. But Jesus, never ever sinned – not even once in his whole life. And so Jesus never deserved to die the way he did. We deserved that. Jessu did not. And Jesus took the penalty for our sins - mine and yours - unto himself. Jesus paid the price that should have only been paid by us. God showed us mercy. And so we should show mercy to other people. We should be fair in what we do – act with justice. We don’t want to do something that isn’t fair: we should follow the rules. We should show people the respect they deserve. BUT we should also be showing mercy. We should be unfair in that way. If you can be unfair in a good way – you should do it. Like forgiving others, even if they don’t deserve it. Loving others, even if they don’t deserve it. Being generous to others, even if they don’t deserve it. Being patient with others, even if they don’t deserve it. Giving others a second chance - even when they don’t deserve it. THAT’S MERCY! So the first part of Micah 6:8 is to act justly. The 2nd part is to love mercy. And then after that – to walk humbly with your God. To be humble means to know your place. So if you are walking humbly with God – you are recognizing that God is God – and you are not. You are just a tiny, teeny person. It doesn’t mean you hate yourself. It means that you recognize who is who. And if God, great as God is – can show mercy to people even like you and me – then we should absolutely show mercy to others. So that’s the challenge to all of you today – is that you would be fair – but also that you would not be fair. Be fair when it is good to be fair and unfair or merciful when it’s good to do that. It can really be a tricky path to walk down – but God wants us to. God wants us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God - AND - with one another! What a great Easter gift God gives us!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Fr MatthewMoments in time... Archives
November 2024
Categories |