Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Luke 1:68-79

68“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
   for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
69He has raised up a mighty savior for us
   in the house of his servant David,
70as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
72Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
   and has remembered his holy covenant,
73the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
   to grant us 74that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
   might serve him without fear, 75in holiness and righteousness
   before him all our days.
76And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
   for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77to give knowledge of salvation to his people
   by the forgiveness of their sins.
78By the tender mercy of our God,
   the dawn from on high will break upon us,
79to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
   to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
   
Mercy is one of Creation's intentions.

As such it has been reflected from the beginning in promise after promise. This mercy shows up in covenant after covenant. A part of the need of this repetition comes from our forgetting to remember a promise for very long. As we look back we see covenants of mercy continually cropping up in our presence. We may not have recognized them at the time, but now they become clear.

Likewise tender mercy is on its way from farther away than eye can see or heart hope. It is not just for us as an individual, for mercy is as social or communal as any basic of life. Tender mercy is not simply a comfort but an equipment of light to find faint ways of peace beyond our experience of death in the midst of life or expectation that anything will really change.

You, child of G*D, are called to be a prophet who preemptively shines forgiveness into the graves of lives. This forgiving light shines beyond our accepted limits to reconnect us to past and future, to friend and foe, to G*D and Neighbor, to self and non-self. Rejoice in your high calling by boldly receiving mercy and extravagantly and expansively giving it away.

= = = = = = =

a bigger bang than a big bang
precedes expansive energy
wherever there is created stuff
or even non-stuff
mercy is there already

mercy lays a groundwork
for foregrounds and backgrounds
for groundhogs and ground chuck
we are grounded in mercy
Allah the Merciful rings true

may G*D’s mercy continue
greater than judgment
that the leading edge of creation
bloom and grow