TITLE: “The Mercy of God”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from the Gospel lesson just read, with focus on these words, And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’

Jesus spoke this parable to those who trusted in themselves and despised others. The problem, of course, is trying to separate the things of this world from the things which make for eternal life.

Here on earth there has to be a sense of self-reliance. It’s important. You know to trust yourself at least a little to know that you will be able to make it through the day, get done what needs doing, and that you’re not going to fall apart at the first sign of trouble. Our country really prides itself on self-reliance. We don’t need anyone’s help with anything? Problems with the economy. We’ll fix it. Problems in your marriage? Don’t talk to anyone else about it, because that would be a sign of weakness? Trouble at school? Deal with it. Need help with something at work? Don’t ask too much, it may be a sign that you don’t know your job.

We live in a culture and in a day where self-reliance is the watchword. Even the phrase self-help groups implies that all that’s really happening is that you are being enabled to help yourself. As Stuart Smalley puts, it, “Only you can help you.”

Perhaps there is some wisdom to this when it comes to the things and times of this world. But it doesn’t work that way when it comes to the things which make for eternal life. St. Paul in our Epistle lesson says that we are dead in trespasses and sins. Dead. Now dead people don’t make decisions. They don’t pick themselves up. They don’t fix their own problems. They are dead. Lifeless. Without hope and without a way out.

When you are dead, the only way something is going to change is if God Himself comes to your aid. You see, not just anyone can solve these problems. You don’t need a change in attitude. You don’t need a program or a quick fix or a simple solution. You’re dead. You need resurrection. You need the new life which only Jesus can give. You need the grace and mercy of God.

This is what the Tax Collector understood and the Pharisee just didn’t get. The Pharisee thought that worship and prayer was all about him. Look what I do!, he says. I pray. I fast. I give tithes. I, I, I, I, I. He thought of worship and prayer as his chance to show God and everyone else that he was in control, self sufficient, and ready to take on the world.

The Tax Collector, though, all he wanted was mercy. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. We say words very similar to that every Sunday: I, a poor miserable sinner, confess to you all my sins and iniquities…and so forth. He wanted what he could not get on his own: forgiveness, reconciliation with God, peace which passes all understanding. In order for him to receive what God had to give to him, God had to crush him and make him despair of his own works. He had to see that he could not do it or make it alone. He needed Jesus, and the mercy that only God Himself can give.

This, dear friends, is the very nature and reason why we come to church. Church is a community. Communion is about unity with God and with each other through Jesus’ blood. It means that you are never alone. It means that when you are at the end of your rope, when you are stuck and without a place to turn or anyone to help you, that God will answer your cry for mercy and will give it to you.

The tax collector came to the Temple to pray because he knew that he couldn’t get out of the mess of his life on his own. And neither can you. This is why God draws you to this place. It isn’t finally the friendships or fellowship, although this is important. It isn’t the great new parking space you’ll get in a couple weeks, although that will be handy. No, God draws you to this place because He loves you and because He wants to be with you. But even more than that, God draws you to this place so that He can show mercy to you, forgive your sins, pick you up, and put you within a community of redeemed sinners who need Jesus just as much as you do.

Hear again those great words from St. Paul:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (NKJV)

Listen to those words. Raised us up together and made us sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. God shows you His great kindness by lifting you up, forgiving your sins, and drawing you into this great community we call the Holy Christian Church.

It’s all about what God does for you, dear friends. No matter what the trial, He will be there. Even if you are a self-righteous sinner like that Pharisee in our text, He will forgive you. We are all Pharisees at times. We are all stuck on our own self-importance or works. But the great miracle of the Gospel is that God continues to do His work of crushing us with the Law and remaking us in His image by the Gospel. His work never ends.

So come to the Table of the Lord, where He does all of this great work for you. God draws sinners to himself, and makes you clean by the blood of the Lamb. God will have mercy on you, a sinner. In Jesus’ name. Amen.