We are getting
ready celebrate the Thanksgiving Festival with all the bells and whistles. We
are also getting ready to welcome the St. Petersburg Men's Ensemble on Friday
December 4, 2015. We will gather at 6:00 PM for dinner with some international
flavor, including Japanese, Indian, and American. The Concert will start at
7:00 PM. We are also getting excited to attend the presentation of Handel's
Messiah, presented by the Binghamton Downtown Singers, accompanied by the
Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra. This will be a huge presentation in honor of
the Birth of our Great and Wonderful Savior. This will presented at the
Binghamton Forum. All seats are by reservation only. There will be only one
presentation this year, to be held on Saturday the December 19 at 7:00. Please
make a note in your calendars. I have been attending this brilliant piece of
music for the last 30 years, and I never get tired of it. This is a cherished
part my Christmas celebration.
I remember as a
young boy reading Psalm 136. It was part of my evening devotion. Life appears
to demonstrate over and over again that some of the things of the world that
allure us come to an end but, the Bible tells us, God’s mercy endures
forever, “his mercies never come to an end… they are new every morning”
(Lamentations 3:22-23). The Bible describes all of these aspects of God’s mercy
toward us. The good news of the gospel is that although we are indeed in God’s
power and although we have offended God through our sin, God is a gracious God,
God is moved with compassion for us, and God is excessively kind to us. God is
a merciful God. In fact the Hebrew word translated as “mercy” which can also
be translated as “love” or “grace.” Hesed is a word which refers to God’s
having a kind disposition toward us all the time, regardless of others’
disposition toward us, regardless of our disposition toward ourselves. God’s
hesed, his mercy, never comes to an end; it lasts forever and ever. In Psalm
136 the refrain, “for his mercy endures forever” is used twenty-six times.
Psalm 136 begins, "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy
endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his mercy endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his mercy endures forever." Twenty-six
times in one psalm: “his mercy endures forever… his mercy endures forever… his
mercy endures forever…” It such a repeated refrain because in our lives we need
God’s mercy over and over again; because in our lives we often experience good
things coming to an end; because we need to be reminded again and again that
God’s mercy, God’s love, God’s grace toward us never ends,
ever.
In his Letter to
the Ephesians Paul put it this way, “God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great
love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made
us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4- 5).
God’s mercy endures forever.
One classic
description of mercy is from Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of
Venice. In it the wealthy heiress, Portia, says, "The quality of mercy is
not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath:
it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: 'Tis mightiest
in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His
sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this scepterd
sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice" (Act
IV, scene 1).
Every time when
we receive Holy Communion with empty hands we are reminded that God’s mercy
endures forever, especially as we pray the Prayer of Humble Access: “We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies… thou
art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy.”) Where will
we indeed find everlasting mercy, if not in our Fathers ’s arms?
In His
Love,
Brown
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