Westwood Presbyterian Church

      When Nathan was 5, Debbie and I took him and two of his friends to see "Jonah: The Movie". It is interesting going to the movies with three 5 year olds, but that is not the point of this story. "Jonah: The Movie" is the Veggie Tale version of the Jonah story, and mercy plays an important role in the movie. As we were driving home I asked the three in the back seat, "What is mercy?" And without hesitation all three of them quoted the line from the movie: "Mercy is giving people a second chance even when they don't deserve it." A good definition.

      Joseph had a problem. Somehow, we don't know how, somehow he had discovered that Mary was pregnant. And Joseph knew he was not the father of the baby. What conclusion was he to jump to other than the most obvious, Mary was in love with someone else. Joseph would have been hurt, deeply hurt, by this turn of events. His hopes and expectations had been smashed. And in his hurt and maybe even a bit of anger, he starts to figure out how to get out of the predicament he is in.

      In those days engagement (betrothal) was as binding as marriage. When you were betrothed it was like being married, just the couple was not living under the same roof yet. The only way out of betrothal was divorce, or worse. But Joseph was not prepared to do the worse. Because Joseph had the option to go before the town council (the court of the day) and say, "My fiancée is pregnant, I am not the father of the child. Therefore she has committed adultery, and I demand justice." Justice in this case being that Mary would be stoned to death. No, Joseph could not do that. But he could not just go along as though nothing had happened. He could not ignore that a wrong had been committed. And so he opts for a quiet divorce. He opts for mercy.

      For mercy to be shown there has have been some wrong committed. Think about this for a minute, walk into Tim Horton's and walk up to someone you don't know at all, someone you have never had any dealing with, and say to them, "I am going to have mercy on you, I forgive you." And wait for the reaction. It may take a couple of seconds, but it is entirely likely that you will end up walking out of Tim Horton's having been screamed at, or wearing coffee. Why? Because to say, "I forgive you. I will be merciful to you," means that the other person has harmed you in some way. To say "I forgive you" means "I am accusing you of having done something wrong."

      For mercy to exist there has to be a relationship of some kind. Even if it is a strained and difficult relationship, there is still a relationship. We don't have mercy in the abstract, we have mercy in the here and the now, in the nitty, gritty of life. In the ebb and flow of our normal lives. There is a saying, "I love all human beings, its people I can't stand." Mercy knows the truth of that saying, for it recognizes that the place that mercy is most needed is not in some abstract reality out there - but rather in the everyday reality of our ordinary lives.

      Isn't it interesting that Santa may be described as generous, but Santa is never described as merciful.  Why? Because Santa does not have a relationship with us, and so Santa cannot be merciful. Now you might say, but in the courts the accused asks the court for mercy, and the accused and judge are not supposed to know each other.  How can you say that there is a relationship there? But there is a relationship in that the judge stands in for society, and crimes are crimes against society, there are a violation of the relationships to which we are all bound as members of the society.

      Mercy grows out of the relationship, grows out of the fact that you and I are in connection with each other. And out of that connection things have happened that have damaged the relationship. People have got hurt. Mercy grows out of caring for the other person, caring for the one who hurt me, who acted to damage the relationship. But mercy does not let the offender off scot free, for mercy knows that a wrong has been done, that there has to be reconciliation for the relationship to be restored. Mercy does not offer easy or cheap forgiveness; mercy holds people accountable for their role in the relationship.

      And so as Joseph is prepared to show mercy, he does so out of the relationship that he has with Mary. The wrong cannot be ignored, something must be done about it, because the wrong has damaged the relationship beyond repair (or so Joseph believes at the start of the passage), but Joseph as a righteous man desires to act with mercy.

      And so he plans a quiet divorce, because he does not want to publicly humiliate Mary.

      Again this speaks to the power of the relationship, Joseph still cares for Mary, and so he does not want to cause her any undue pain. Mercy can not overlook the sin, but it still cares for the offender enough to not want undue harm to come to them.

      I am a fan of the TV show "Law and Order". In one episode, a young man has killed another young man for completely senseless reasons. The killer has been found guilty, and the parents of the young man he killed are invited to address their son's killer. The mother with tears in her eyes ends her brief address by saying, "May God have mercy on you in the terrible place to which you are going." She is talking about the horrors of prison life. Here is a mother who has lost a son, who still desires that God be merciful to her son's killer. Mercy can not overlook the sin, but it still cares about the offenders well­being.

      Joseph will not drag Mary out in public and denounce her; Joseph will quietly end the relationship which is too painful to continue. But in his hurt, he still will not cause her undue hurt. He is exquisitely aware of her honour. He will not shame her.

      Mercy is when the one in the right, the one who has the right to exercise revenge, to make the other person feel the pain they have caused, chooses instead to not shame the offending party. Mercy is holding back on giving the other party what they deserve to get.

      To be clear as I can about this, Mercy is not saying, "0, that doesn't matter, it was no big deal." That approach simply says there was no caring, no connection, there is not commitment to the offender. Rather Mercy is saying, "I have been deeply hurt, I have been wronged, but I care so much about this relationship and about you that I will not further damage the relationship or you by exacting revenge."

      This is what makes mercy so precious, for it goes against the revenge mentality that dominates our culture. It says "Your value as a person is so important I will not bring you down and force you to beg before me."

      To do that means that we end up taking on ourselves the pain of what has happened.

      By choosing not to exercise revenge we choose instead to carry some of the burden of the guilt.

      Let's get back to Joseph. An angel comes to him and says, "The child that Mary is carrying has been conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, this child is the Son of God, and you have role to play in all of this, you are to name the child, Jesus, when he is born, because He will save his people from their sins."

      Full credit to Joseph who believed the angel and married Mary on the basis of the angel's instruction. In marrying Mary, Joseph is obeying the angel, but his actions will not be understood by the townspeople as being about obeying an angel. Rather his actions will be seen as an admission of complicity with Mary. They had not waited until they got married. The village gossips would have been having a field day, the town elders would remember this and hold it against Joseph when it came to asking him for advice or input. In marrying Mary, Joseph takes onto himself some of the guilt and shame that is being thrown at Mary.

      Now I know that there was no sin, but the townspeople would have assumed that Mary and Joseph had done wrong. And Joseph becomes one who bears some of the assumed sin. In this way he becomes in a way her saviour. That is what makes the fact that he is the one who is to name the child so extraordinary - He is to name the child Jesus - which means Saviour - because "he will save his people from their sins." In Joseph's taking on some of the assumed guilt attached to Mary, he acts out in microcosm what Jesus will do later on the cross - bearing the sin of the world, sin he was not guilty of, so that he could show mercy to us - people who did not deserve mercy.

      We are invited to follow the example of Jesus - who is not only our Saviour, but also our example. We are invited to take into ourselves some of the pain and guilt that goes along with showing mercy. Showing mercy is not without cost. It is in fact very costly to show mercy. For we need to take some of the pain upon ourselves, being people who show mercy will require living sacrificial lives. Being known as people who love mercy does not come without cost. Acts of mercy will require sacrifice, as Joseph discovered.

      To this point it has sounded as though we as human beings are to muster up this love for mercy, to be the people who in our own strength find the ways to live merciful lives in our world. But if we have thought about this for more than 5 minutes we will recognize that we can not offer this kind of mercy in our own strength, rather every fiber in our being wants to exercise revenge rather than mercy.

      To steal some of what I will say next week - the passage from Micah 6:8 that we are using as the backdrop against which we are looking at this characters from the Christmas story has three requirements that God has put down - seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. The only way we will be able to exercise the mercy we need to exercise is through our connection with God. In purely human terms we cannot offer the mercy needed, in purely human terms we cannot find the ways to bear in ourselves the burden that needs to be borne. That level of mercy comes from only one place - "And he will save his people from their sins." The same love that took Jesus to the cross, the profound love of God for human beings, is the love that we need to tap into if we are going to be people who love mercy, who act with mercy in our relationships.

      The gift that God offers to us in Jesus Christ, is that the Holy Spirit who came upon Jesus, is the same Holy Spirit that will come upon us and transform our lives into the lives of mercy that we are called to live.

      Notice that we are instructed to seek justice - and love mercy. Love is a stronger word than seek And it is no mistake that we are called to love mercy - anything less would not be enough - the call is too high, the demands to large, for us to follow through if we were motivated by anything less than love.

      This Advent season may we be people who follow the example of Joseph as we love mercy. May we be opening to receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit who will give us the strength and the resolve to live as people who love mercy.