Are You Ready for a Year of Mercy?

³⁶Are You Ready for a Year of Mercy?

Good Morning Friends,

This year we are celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the founding of Moorings Presbyterian Church. Not so long by most standards. But the number 50 is significant. The Bible describes a period of time most people have never heard of – the Jubilee year. It occurs after seven sets of seven yearly intervals (49 total) are finished. This proclamation of a fiftieth “liberty” year occurs on one of God’s annual feast days known as the Day of Atonement. Some believe that our nation in the U.S.A was founded in 1776 in a year of Jubilee. The Liberty Bell quotes from Leviticus referencing it. But as a nation we have never practiced a special regularly occurring time where man’s possessions are returned to God. Are You Ready for a Year of Mercy?

Scripture: Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Luke 6:36 (NRSV)

¹⁰And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.

Leviticus 25:10 (NRSV)

⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NRSV)

Let us . . . approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16 (NRSV)

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3-12 (NRSV)

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ¹⁸ ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ ²⁰And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

Luke 4:16-21 (NRSV)

Message: Did you know that Jesus began his public ministry with a quote about the Jubilee? He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read today’s scripture from Isaiah as repeated in the book of Luke. From the very beginning Jesus’ ministry is one of deliverance, healing and redemption. He passed this on to the disciples and the sound of this salvation, this jubilee, this joy, reverberates in us when our hands and feet join with other believers who share Jesus’ love. Here we discover spiritual freedom from our pain. Here we forgive and find forgiveness. Here we see the amazing ways that God moves in our lives to heal, to proclaim and deliver. And a key characteristic of our Heavenly Father is that He gives mercy and grace to His children. He knows we have a debt we cannot pay.
It is about mercy, not fairness. Friends, we have all walked through valleys and hopefully learned not to sit down in them. Today’s scripture invites us to look to something new. Here we are call to a process of getting inside another’s skin, to look at where others view life and feel what they are experiencing, to move and act on behalf of one who is hurting. And here we are called to see and feel how mercy sustains us, how mercy eliminates the pain and offers relief even though it does not cure our disease. Friends, mercy is what is beyond hope and before grace. Here we experience a God that is faithful and brings new life each and every day. Jesus is our Jubilee.

Pray that God stirs our souls into worship. Pray with praise that we not forget His amazing grace, His perfect righteousness, His revealed Word, His loyal love, His forgiving mercy, and His understanding patience. Pray that in our communion with Him, what is old becomes new. Pray for the miracle of a spiritual metamorphism. Pray for all those who have sinned that they have mercy. Pray that God listens to our cries for mercy. Pray we find mercy and grace in our time of need. Pray that God have mercy on us in our stubborn ways and give us the grace to humble ourselves before Him. Pray
that we identify with the love of God when we receive and grant mercy. Pray we experience the never ending love of God as we become a conduit of God’s mercy. Pray we realize we were all made from the same soil. Pray in our reflecting, renewal and recalibration we form habits that liberate us to work hard and to rest well.

Blessings,

John Lawson