mercy – Hope Walking

A Crumby Prayer

What if there were prayer screeners in Heaven – maybe a panel of judges that rate your prayers from zero to ten before they are sent on to the Throne Room? How would you do? No doubt you have heard some eloquent, beautifully spoken prayers at churches, ceremonies, and formal events. Would you give them a “10”? Would Heaven?

What if you were at the end of your rope, or sick, or depressed, utterly exhausted and could hardly put three words together, would God listen to you?

One day such a woman harassed Jesus. Matthew calls her a Canaanite woman; Mark calls her a Syrophoenician woman; I call her a mom – a mom with an incurably sick little daughter. She hears Jesus is in town and she has no time to compose a winning plea for his help. She rushes to the house where Jesus is trying to remain unseen and starts yelling for Jesus.

“Have mercy on me, Lord,” she cries, “My daughter is horribly demon-possesed.”

Falling on the floor at his feet she begs, “Lord, help me!”

But there seems to be a problem. This mom is a Gentile and Jesus was sent to the children of Israel. He tells her it wouldn’t be right to take the bread from the children and give it to the pets. The children have to eat first.

Whenever you are tempted to give up praying, remember this woman!

“But,” she says.

“But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

What a crumby prayer! She admits she will settle for whatever bread will fall to the floor. Well, after all she is already down on the floor.

But much more than that, she knows who is making the bread.

When she started yelling for Jesus she called him “Son of David.” That’s the title of the heir to the royal throne, the Messiah, God’s anointed. These are no ordinary crumbs.

“Woman,” Jesus told her, “your faith is great! You may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

What bread do you need today?

In the prayer Jesus taught, we pray, “give us today our daily bread.”

We don’t need eloquence to ask God for what we need – we need confidence in who He is.

By all means, when you can, compose beautiful songs and prayers of praise to God. But when you can’t find words, that’s okay.

“Lord, help me” is enough.

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Scripture reference: Matthew 15:22, Mark 7:25

Just Hope

There is a voice deep in your heart that cries out for justice. It’s been there a long time, since the day you thought, “that’s not fair.”

And this voice made me board a bus in the morning dark on January 24 and ride for hours to the heart of our nation’s capital. There I joined 400,000 others to say, “That’s not fair when a baby in her mother’s womb is torn apart.”

You are probably not aware that so many pro-lifers did this. The main media chose to ignore this March for Life, and, while that is not fair, it is nothing compared to ignoring the tiny persons whose lives are taken unjustly.

As I walked the miles from the Mall to the Supreme Court I passed the Capitol building.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was inside that building, presiding in the Senate Chamber. But he was not there to judge; the Senators were judging. In this not often seen arrangement the innocence or guilt of the President was being decided by the opinions of 100 Senators. And no matter what they decide we will hear for years, “That’s not fair.”

So, who gets to make the final decision of what is fair and just?

If we work at it we can convince ourselves that fairness is for us, not them. History has a long list of “not thems.” Maybe you’ve been on that list. Right now children waiting to be born are on that list and can be killed up to the moment of birth at the choice of their mothers. Fair enough?

Deep down we long for a justice that is not decided by 100 senators or the mood of a mother. We want justice that cannot be moved. Can we find reason to hope for that?

When Jesus walked with humanity he was accused of many wrongs and executed for those accusations. Yet he claimed to have authority from God to judge rightly saying, “I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.”

The only rock-solid justice we can hope for has to come from the Creator of all who placed the voice of justice, the moral law, in each human heart. And when God raised Jesus from the dead he affirmed his power and intent to bring final justice to all.

Everyone who wants true justice will receive it, and with such justice comes mercy. Scripture says, “He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”

But you have to want the just Judge.

The prophet Isaiah wrote, “For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”

We don’t just hope; we hope in the One who is Just, a just hope.

scriptures quoted: John 8:25; Colossians 2:13-14; Isaiah 30:18

The Power of Brandt Jean

Suddenly last week news shows and social media were filled with the gentle, articulate voice of Brandt Jean. His forgiveness for his brother’s murderer was unexpected, but not unprecedented (Rev. Anthony B. Thompson forgave his wife’s killer in another poignant courtroom confrontation four years ago in Charleston.)

Some online discussion that followed distracted us from the import of this act. Let’s go back to Brandt and the power of what he did.

brandt-jean-testimony-700x438

The news that someone you love has been murdered pounds you. Many years ago my friend Frank was shot in the face and died instantly. When I heard, I felt someone had beaten me. To the weight of grief was added the assault of evil.

We can hardly start to fathom the depth of Brandt’s pain over the loss of his brother Botham, but we can profoundly value it. And that is what makes Brandt’s gift of forgiveness to Amber Guyger so stunningly powerful.

You may be thinking Amber does not deserve forgiveness, but think for a moment how you know that. How do you know there is a moral law that says murder is wrong? How do you know that anything is wrong? How do you know that you, yourself, have done wrong? I know you know that, as I know I have done serious wrong.

God put a moral law in our hearts; when we break it, we break ourselves. We can try hard to escape the despair of that brokenness, to push the pain away anyway we can, but we can’t keep it away.

But God, in Christ, took that pain on himself and died to remove our brokenness. Christ has told us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

“I hope you go to God with all the guilt, all the bad things you’ve done in the past.” Brandt told Amber. “If you truly are sorry, I know, I can speak for myself – I forgive you, and I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you.”

Brandt lives in the forgiveness that has given life to him, and so he has the power to invite Amber to live also.

There are only two choices: to spend our days bickering and blaming, while the guilt in our souls destroys us, or to accept God’s forgiveness and offer mercy to everyone, even those who harm us.

“I want the best for you, because that’s exactly what Botham would want you to do. And the best would be to give your life to Christ,” Brandt said. “I’m not going to say anything else. I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that Botham would want you to do. Again, I love you as a person, and I don’t wish anything bad on you.”

I hope the power of this reaches you.