Have mercy!

Life has been full of grace in the past few months with the only pitfall being that I have not had an outlet to feel like I can worship in my own way... not by myself but rather in the context of a community. I am certain that most pastors deal with this from time to time. In our planning the worship and preaching from week to week, it becomes difficult to really immerse yourself in the experience of worship. So for me the outlet has become reading the scriptures and the devotional classics. This renewed interest has come from the actualization that I have not had the most fulfilling devotional life of late. Maybe it is a chain reaction of sorts, if you are feeling less than worshipful then you may be just as willing to neglect the care of your soul through devotional reading of the scriptures and great writers of yesteryear. In this reading, my focus has been to attempt to see the "intent of God" beyond simply the "word of God." Sometimes we give the words so much power that we can't see what lies beyond them.

Walter Brueggeman once said that "the greatest theme in all of scripture is that God continually breaks his own rules," this is known by another name as well: mercy. The reoccuring theme of God breaking his rules to show us mercy is astounding. What we crucify God will resurrect. What we hate God will love. We need only to see Jesus to really "get this". Maybe I need to be more intent on thanking God for that mercy. Maybe I need to begin to demonstrate that in my own life. Why do we play by the rules? In society? In our faith community? Maybe because we have begun to create God in our image. We forget to see the mercy that is poured out on us all. I want to be that kind of mercy... maybe through reconnecting with the scriptures this mercy will unfold.