Tender Mercy

Isaiah 40: 9-11

Luke 1: 68-79

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For much of my engineering career, I headed back and forth to and from Jackson along I-94. Right on the east edge of Jackson there is a Motel – a local place, like a motor lodge. It’s been there a long time. Right above the sign for The Michigan Motel that looms over the freeway, is another sign that says “Prepare to Meet Thy God”.

It’s kind of ominous, seeing that sign there every day. I think it’s intended to do that – as if it’s saying “Are you ready? Are you living your life in a way that is pleasing to God? Do you need to turn around your life before it’s too late?”

Advent begins today. It’s a time of waiting, a time of preparing for the coming of Christ, the birth of God incarnate, the visiting of God upon us.

John the Baptist was born before Jesus, and in our gospel reading today we hear the song of praise and prophecy that his father, Zechariah, proclaims as the first words out of his mouth since he was made unable to speak nine long months before. When the angel Gabriel came to him to tell him that he and his wife Elizabeth, who was well past her childbearing years, would be giving birth to a son, Zechariah would not, could not, did not believe it. And so he was struck mute until Jesus’ cousin John was born. Zechariah gets a white board and a marker and writes an emphatic note – “His name is John”. And then he is able to speak again.

And the great event he proclaims is the same event that Isaiah proclaims – the coming of the Lord God.

Isaiah says “The Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him”.

And what will God’s arms be used for?

“To gather the lambs in his arms,

to carry them close to his bosom,

to feed his flock like a shepherd,

to gently lead the mother sheep.”

This is amazing grace; this is tender mercy.

We’ve talked before about the way that grace is the foundational element of our faith as Presbyterians. We’ve also talked about the relationship between grace and mercy – how grace is getting from God what we don’t deserve, what we have not earned and what we cannot possibly earn – God’s favor, our place as God’s children, adopted and heirs of the kingdom. This is truly amazing grace.

And mercy is not getting what we do deserve – the judgment, the punishment that our sins ought to carry. Because God has forgiven us, has forgotten our sin, has separated us from our sin. That is truly tender mercy.

Zechariah says it this way:

“God has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors.

God has remembered the holy covenant given to Abraham,

that we were rescued in order to serve him without fear, all of our days.

John, this new miracle baby, will prepare the way of the Lord.

He will give God’s people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.

By God’s tender mercy, the dawn will break, bringing light to those in darkness,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Tender mercy.

The Greek word that is translated here as “tender” is a word that is used to describe our inner organs – our heart, lungs, spleen. So this is mercy that is closest to the heart of God, the essence of God. Tender mercy. Heartfelt mercy.

One of the first books I picked up as I began the journey that eventually led me to seminary was a book by Brennan Manning called “The Wisdom of Tenderness”. I picked it up in an airport bookstore on the way home from a business trip, and I found that it spoke to the stirrings that were already in my heart – that the world was intended to work in a way that was different from the dog-eat-dog, competitive, achievement-oriented lifestyle that I had been steeped in for so much of my adult life. God had been calling me to consider a new way, and this book was one of the first to put words to it. The Wisdom of – Tenderness. Tenderness seemed like the polar opposite of what was being taught at the business schools, as the way leading to success.

I pulled this book out and read it again this week, as I was pondering the meaning of “tender mercy”.  Its author, Brennan Manning, wrote many books on grace, mercy, and the promise of the gospel during his life in ministry, before his death in 2013. His best known work is called “The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out.” He experienced the tender mercy of God firsthand, as he was saved from near-death from alcoholism.

He writes these words in the preface of this book, “The Wisdom of Tenderness”.

“The crux of this little book can be stated briefly and succinctly. In a moment of naked honesty, ask yourself, “Do I wholeheartedly trust that God likes me?” (Not loves me, because theologically God can’t do otherwise.) “And do I trust the God likes me, not after I clean up my act and eliminate every trace of sin, selfishness, dishonesty, and degraded love; not after I develop a disciplined prayer life and spend ten years in Calcutta with Mother Teresa’s missionaries; but in this moment, right now, right here, with all my faults and weaknesses?” If you answer without hesitation, “Oh yes, God does like me; in fact, he’s very fond of me,” you’re living in the wisdom of accepted tenderness.”

Hearing Brennan Manning’s words coming straight from him is a better way to consider this gift of tender mercy. Let’s watch this short video excerpt from one of his talks.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0iaZp3CzUXk

The gift that comes at Christmas, the miracle of God with us, is that God’s judgment is expressed in tender mercy, in a light that shines in our darkness. This is true for each of us, and for all those whom we feel worthy of determining that they certainly must deserve God’s judgment. 

Our salvation is revealed in the tender mercy of God – because if we had to earn it, we would be doomed – each and every one of us.

Our God is so much bigger than what we so often perceive.

Our God is big enough to love us just the way we are, not the way we should be – because we never will be what we should be.

Thanks be to God, the one we are waiting for, the one we are “preparing to meet”, is not a God we need to fear, but is the God who comes with arms wide open, with tender mercy, with a warm embrace and a “welcome home”, just as we are, whenever we are ready to receive it.

This is a God who comes to light our darkness, to guide our feet in the way of peace. And God knows, we desperately need that kind of guidance.

This is a God that the world needs to know, and that we can show, but only through our own love and mercy toward others.

Prepare to meet thy God. Prepare the way of the Lord. Live in the wisdom of accepted tenderness, now and always. Amen.