The Second Sunday after Pentecost-The Rev Melanie Lemburg
2nd Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 5A
June 11, 2023
“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire
mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not
the righteous but sinners.” Jesus
is quoting Hosea 6:6 in our gospel reading for today: Go and learn what
this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’
But I also know this passage as one of Matt Devenney’s favorite bible
verses. It’s strange that I know that
this is one of Matt Devenney’s favorite bible verses, but I never actually knew
Matt Devenney.
Matt was the
Executive Director of Stewpot years before I got there. By the time I started working at Stewpot in
the late 90’s/early 2000’s, the soup kitchen in inner city Jackson had expanded
dramatically and had moved from the gas station across the street to the former
Presbyterian church whose fellowship hall had been transformed into the heart
of the soup kitchen where people from all over Jackson would gather to enjoy a
daily, hot meal. Stewpot’s executive
director had been a friend of Matt’s, and sometimes he talked about him, while
pointing to the photo of Matt holding his young son that watched over us all
from a prominent place in the lunchroom.
On June 19, 1991, the
33 year old Matt Devenney had confronted a man named John D. Smith who had a
gun with him where everyone was gathering outside for lunch. In an effort to protect the community, Matt
had told John that he couldn’t be there with a gun. John was not unknown to Matt. Matt had been working with him, trying to
help him as John had been discharged from the Army with a diagnosis of paranoid
schizophrenia, and had received treatment in both a state hospital and a
veterans' medical center. After Matt
confronted John, John began moving away across the street, and Matt moved
toward him. Some of the witnesses
suggested that Matt was trying to protect the group of men gathered behind him
in case John decided to fire into the crowd.
John shouted at Matt that he couldn’t stop him from having a gun because
he was the governor of Mississippi, and then he turned and shot Matt in the
chest two times at close range. John was
arrested later that day. Matt died, leaving
behind a wife and a two year old son.
Matt was buried
wearing a medallion that had been given to him by his sister. On the front is an image of Jesus on the back
are the words of Matthew 9:13: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not
sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”[i]
I was working at
Stewpot 10 years after Matt’s death, and in my three years there, I learned as
much or more as I learned in my three years of seminary. Matt’s legacy of tending toward mercy had
created a community that was a glimpse into the kingdom of God: a place where
all can come to be fed, where all sit together around the table, where people
come to serve and be served and where there is mutuality in those
relationships. As I would eat lunch with
those folks every day, working with them, creating friendships and
relationships, I realized that they had so much less than me, and yet that had
so much more gratitude for the gift of each new day. I learned that every single one of us is able
to give or show mercy and that every single one of us is in need of mercy, from
God and from our fellow children of God.
We fool ourselves when we think we don’t need mercy, and this is what
Jesus is trying to teach us and the Pharisees in today’s gospel: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire
mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
We are, each and
every one of us, made in the image and likeness of God, and each and every one
of us falls short of the glory of God.
None of us is truly righteous, and every one of us is in need of
mercy—lovingkindness, forgiveness, grace.
When we believe that we are not in need of mercy, when we think we have
it all together or all figured out is when we harden our hearts like the
Pharisees, who were faithful religious people just like us, and we begin to
question who deserves mercy and a place at Jesus’s table.
So, what does it mean
to show or to receive mercy? Many of us
think of showing mercy as giving to those who beg from us, and there is
certainly mercy wrapped up in that. But
what if seeking and showing mercy is broader and wider than giving to beggars? What
if showing mercy means inviting the new kid to sit with you at lunch or
expanding your circle of friendship beyond its normal or natural bounds? What if mercy means being patient with
someone when you are running out of patience to give? What if mercy means putting yourself in
someone else’s shoes in daily encounters, or offering someone the benefit of
the doubt before rushing to judgement? What
if mercy means being honest but tempering that honesty with kindness? What if
mercy means looking for the humanity in others and responding to that?
Can you think of a
time when you felt called to show someone mercy? Can you think of a time when you were in need
of mercy or someone gave it to you without you having to ask for it?
“Go and learn what
this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the
righteous but sinners.”
[i]
Some of these details are found in the Sojourner’s article titled A
Teacher of Mercy by Joyce Hollyday: https://sojo.net/magazine/october-1991/teacher-mercy
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