FRIDAY, MAY 13
READ MATTHEW 9:9-13
MATTHEW 9:9 As Yeshua passed on from there he spotted a tax-collector named Mattityahu sitting in his collection booth. He said to him, “Follow me!” and he got up and followed him.
10 While Yeshua was in the house eating, many tax-collectors and sinners came and joined him and his talmidim at the meal. 11 When the P’rushim saw this, they said to his talmidim, “Why does your rabbi eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” 12 But Yeshua heard the question and answered, “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. 13 As for you, go and learn what this means: ‘I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifices.’[Matthew 9:13 Hosea 6:6] For I didn’t come to call the ‘righteous,’ but sinners!”
As we go, we are called to learn God’s way of mercy. How do we learn mercy? David Brooks, in his book Call to Character, says brokenness or suffering is what makes people compassionate or merciful. Do we learn mercy through the experience of our own brokenness? Or do we become bitter victims? Learning mercy implies that we emerge from our brokenness not as victims but as people who care enough to work toward making sure that others do not experience the same brokenness. Mercy often carries a justice element to it. Why do I care that “all” means “all” in our church?
Because I know what it’s like to be rejected by the church I love. While my “home” church denomination greatly shaped who I am and my faith, when God called me into ministry, that same church rejected my call! Now I’m a “born again” United Methodist in the sense that I want everyone to be received and accepted by a church that professes grace toward all. Countless people experience rejection, shunning, denial, and are made suspect in our churches and communities because of their race, color, disability, sexual orientation, economic and class differences—all aspects of being that persons have little or no control over. Maybe you’ve always been well received, listened to, noticed, and encouraged. If so, learning mercy may prove difficult.But more likely, you too may have had a wounding life experience that has inflicted brokenness. What is your point of brokenness, and how does it motivate you to make sure that you don’t treat others like the righteous ones in Jesus’ day treated Matthew?
Help us learn mercy, O God, and let the test of our learning be in the ways in which we demonstrate mercifulness to the Matthews of our day. Amen.[Sally Dyck]
Bishop Sally Dyck is the episcopal leader of the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church. Before entering the episcopacy, Bishop Dyck served as an elder in the East Ohio Conference, where she was a pastor and a district superintendent. She has served on the board of directors for the General Board of Global Ministries, was elected to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches in 2006, and became president of the United Methodist Commission on Communications in 2008.
Special Note: The image with the meditation was designed by Rev. Todd Pick and will be used in today’s worship service at General Conference.
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