Thought for Today
Exodus 25:17 Then you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width.
Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
2 John 1:3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, in truth and love.
Two of my favorite words in the English language are grace and mercy. Seminary and age have brought those 2 words into very sharp, personal focus for me. I increasingly am aware of how dependent I am on God’s mercy and grace. As I thought about that this morning, I found it interesting that although both words appear in the Old Testament and the New Testament, they only appear together in the same verses in the New Testament. When I did the word search this morning, I especially loved that verse above from the second epistle of John. I plan to add that verse to my list of benedictions.
The basic meaning of grace, Greek χάρις (charis), is “Unmerited favor.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg. 120) The basic meaning of mercy, ἔλεος (elos) is, “Kind and compassionate treatment extending biblically to forgiveness and the gracious bestowal of that which is not deserved.” (ibid, pg. 171)
As a Christian, I find it difficult to think of one without the other. I know that my salvation is through my faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8). I also know that that verse ends noting that my salvation is a gift from God.
We hear, read and see a lot during Advent about gifts. Regrettably, all of that is about commercial gifts. What is the ‘hottest’ gift this year? “Everybody’s buying . . . !” My email inbox is inundated with notices about the ‘Special of the Day!!!!’ Commercially, Advent seems to begin on the day after Thanksgiving.
Each year, I promise not to be so much of a grinch about all the commercialization of Christmas. Each year, I promise not to get angry about all the admonitions about spoiling Christmas if I don’t buy a . . . So far, every year I end up breaking my promises.
I will admit that when we had young children living at home, our Christmas tree was as shamefully surrounded by presents as everyone else’s. Every Christmas morning, our den was shrouded in a fog of torn wrapping paper and discarded ribbon. As grandparents, we later enjoyed seeing the same when we visited our children and watched our grandchildren mow through the accumulated presents like barbarians attacking the villagers. None of us were ever rich, but somehow Christmas was always memorable.
I do miss the excitement, now that we are all grown. I miss the squeals of joy as all of that carefully done wrapping paper is destroyed. I miss the feeling of pride when I was assured that I had successfully procured the most essential gifts so that my children would not be the only kids in school without a . . .
But Advent is not truly about the presents we give. We give those presents, we think those presents are so important, because of the gifts God has given us. When our earliest ancestors-in-the-faith built the first Tabernacle and constructed the original Ark of the Covenant, they received those instructions above in Exodus for the mercy seat or cover. Advent should be a time when we reflect on that idea that when God is present on earth, that ark is his footstool. The name ‘mercy seat’ is illustrative of the fact that mercy is a part of the very nature of God.
Mercy, grace, love and goodness are all component aspects of the nature of our Creator God. Certainly throughout the year, but especially during Advent and on Christmas Day, we should be especially aware of the elemental truth of John 3:16.
Christmas Day, all of the parties, celebrations, gifts, wrapping paper fog, all of it is a pale reflection of the magnitude of God’s own gift to us, given by the mercy, love and grace of our Creator. We have special worship services, we have services of ‘Lessons and Carols,’ we have Advent Workshops and all sorts of special celebrations . . . all to affirm that we understand the foundational, elemental truth of John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8. This year, take a few minutes during this season, read those verses and think about it.
Stay safe, thank God for his mercy and grace, trust God,
Pastor Ray