BismIllah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim: In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Faithful Muslims begin every action of significance - a speech, a journey, a meal, with these words - and maybe we Christians should remember, too, how Paul told the Colossians to "do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus."
God is indeed merciful. We worship a God who is "rich in mercy" (Eph. 4), "merciful and gracious" (Ps. 103:8), whose "mercy is everlasting, and whose truth endureth to all generations", to quote the old translation of Ps. 100:5. But what do we mean by mercy?
"Merciful" is one of those words which are "religious jargon". It is used in the everyday world in a very specific way, with the sense of not punishing someone who deserves it, but among believers it has a wider meaning. When we talk to people outside the church, we should remind ourselves that these people do not necessarily understand our "jargon words". (A further example of religious shorthand is the idea of "God's mercies", the gifts which God provides!)
Nearly every language has taken a word from a secular context and added a religious meaning to describe God's mercy. In Hebrew, the word is rehem, whose first meaning is "womb" (sometimes quaintly translated as "bowels of compassion"): God's mercy is like a mother's tender love for her child. In Latin, the word is misericordia, literally a heart which takes pity on us. In German, Gnade has to do with giving, and this underlies the idea of mercy in English.
For the word "mercy" (along with the word "market" and the French word for "thank you") come from a word meaning "reward", and the idea of a reward is that the giver is not forced to give it. It comes from the kindness of the giver's heart. We who receive mercy have no claim, no right to it. It is an act of generosity.
In Greek, mercy is eleos, a word which combines the idea of generosity with the idea of pity. Eleos is something given - the English word "alms" is related. It is given because the giver sees the receiver's need, and it given because the giver has resources which the recipient lacks. When we pray Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy, we are not simply asking God to be lenient to our sins, but to see our needs and to provide for them.
We also talk of God's "mercy-seat". This was the gold cover to the chest in the Temple where the tablets of the Law were held, the Ark of the Covenant. Flanked by two cherubim with outspread wings, it was "where I will meet you", as God told Moses (Exodus 25:22). The way it covered the ark recalled the way God's mercy blotted out our sins, and it came to be called "the place of atonement". Martin Luther translated this as Gnadenstuhl, and Tyndale and the English reformers followed him. (Seat just means "place", and has nothing to do with sitting down!)
In the New Testament, grace, mercy and peace often come together - and in that order. Grace is God's loving kindness. Mercy is God's response to our needs. Peace is the result of these two in our own hearts.
Just as God is merciful, so we too are called to show mercy to those around us. For those with a passion for lists, there are seven "corporal" works of mercy: to feed the hungry; to give drink to the thirsty; to clothe the naked; to harbour the stranger; to visit the sick; to minister to the imprisoned, and to bury the dead. In the last part of Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story illustrating how essential they are. They are balanced by seven "spiritual" works of mercy: to convert the sinner; to instruct the ignorant; to counsel the doubtful; to bear wrongs patiently; to forgive offences willingly; to comfort the sorrowful, and to pray for all.
Jesus reminded his listeners that God wants us to practise mercy, and not just to go through the motions of making sacrifices in the Temple - or any of its modern equivalents. (Twice, in Mt 9:13 and 12:7 he recalls Hosea 6:6.) Mercy indeed "blesseth him that gives and him that takes", as Portia reminds Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. So even if those outside the church do not understand the word "mercy", let us practise it, so that they may understand mercy in action!
HD