The Lord is Kind and Merciful

“The Lord is kind and merciful” describes our theme for today. We hear about God’s desire to bring his people, suffering as slaves in Egypt, into freedom. He chooses Moses to be the one to demand and obtain their freedom. Moses wasn’t happy to have to do this. He had escaped from Egypt himself because he had killed an Egyptian who had attacked an Israelite. Now God tells him he has to go back and deal with the Egyptian king. God gives Moses a special gift, God’s name: “Yahweh,” translated as “I AM.” What is so special about that? It was like giving someone your private phone number. God was assuring Moses of a special relationship Moses would have with him and letting Moses know he could call on God whenever he needed him.

In our second reading Paul reminds us of how many blessings and marvels God’s people experienced as God led them through the desert to the Promised Land. But in spite of all the wonderful things God gave them, they were unable to enter into the Promised Land. In the end they had failed to continue trusting in God. He tells us not to be like them.

The theme that “the Lord is kind and merciful” shows up again in the gospel in a short parable about a fig tree. It was given opportunities of every kind to produce fruit, but it failed to do so. “The Lord is kind and merciful,” but he expects us not to take his mercy for granted. With the help of his kindness, he expects us to grow in goodness and holiness.

I said in my introduction that the theme for today is “the Lord is kind and merciful.” He is kind and merciful in many ways. One of the ways he is kind and merciful is in calling us to repentance and renewal. In the book of Revelation Jesus said: “Whoever is dear to me I reprove

and chastise. Be earnest about it, therefore. Repent!

Here I stand, knocking at the door. If anyone hears me

calling and opens the door, I will enter his house and

have supper with him, and he with me.” This assumes

that we all have room for improvement. God asks that of

us and he also gives us the help we need to be better.

That is kindness to us. He would not be kind if he didn’t

stimulate us to keep improving ourselves. The fact that he challenges us to change comes from his love as a caring parent. The parable of the fig tree is a call to live a positive life according to the gospel – doing good by loving God and others.

The conversation Jesus had about tragic events at the beginning of today’s gospel was interesting. Sometimes people think when something bad happens to someone it is God’s punishment. Jesus said that’s not always true. He does not try to explain suffering here, but he is telling us not to be complacent, which we sometimes are. We can’t think “well, if nothing bad is happening to me, it must be because I am so good. He tells us we all need to repent, i.e., to work to be better than we are. [Rev. Joseph Robinson, Feed My Soul]