Inscribing the Text: Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann

What a Difference Mercy Makes

What a Difference Mercy Makes Isaiah 43:16-21; 1 Peter 2:9-10 Did you know that in Western culture, almost all television commercials follow the same simple dramatic format? You have a headache ... and then you feel good! And the difference is aspirin. You are lonely ... and then you have friends! And the difference is beer. You are thirsty ... and then you are satisfied! And the difference is Coke, "the Pause that Refreshes." You are overweight... and then you are slim and attractive, or lean and mean; and the difference is a magic diet formula. The claim in each case is the same. I Did you know that this simple dramatic format is borrowed from the Bible and its good news of salvation? Once I was lost... and now I am found! And the difference is the Gospel. Once I was dead ... and now I am alive! And the difference isJesus. Once I was blind ... and now I see! And the difference is the good news of God's love. Once I was enslaved ... and now I am free! And the difference is God's rescuing mercy. Our gospel faith is organized around the way it was and the way it is. And we know the name of the one who has transposed our life from 79 the way it was to the new way it can become. We say that the God known inJesus Christ has changed everything, and that the television ads are false. They are false because no aspirin or beer, no soft drink or magic diet can give new life. New life is given only by God's miraculous love. I have taken this theme because the assigned text this morning concerned the transfiguration ofJesus; that is,Jesus took a new form. And then I thought as we move from Epiphany to Lent we may consider the "transfiguration of the church," a new form of life made possible by the Gospel, so that we may think about the oldform of life and the newform of life that God in Christ makes possible among us. II This text in 1 Peter 2:9-10 is a very famous text that announces in a rich vocabulary the main truth of the church. The letter is written to a church that is frightened, under threat, and bewildered. The church, in all its bewilderment, is urged by this letter to stand up and be counted as God's people. In lots of places in the U.S. just now, the church is frightened and bewildered, and feels under great threat. And so this letter could be addressed to our own church situation. The writer does not use much energy on reminding church people of how it used to be, before the coming of the Gospel. You know how it was back then: once you had a headache, once you were lonely, once you were thirsty, once you were overweight. Well, it is worse than that: Onceyou were no people. Do you ever think about that? There was a time when there was no community of faith. The people who now constitute the church were not a community, had nothing in common , did not know or trust or belong to each other. It was every person alone, abandoned, helpless. Once you had not received mercy. There was a time prior to the good news, prior to being called and baptized and loved and forgiven. "Pre-mercy" people are people who must reinvent themselves every day, making themselves up by pressure and achievement and pre80 tense, impressing people, being good enough, being quick enough, being smart enough ... but of course it is never enough. Because the next day it must be done all over again, until one is exhausted and left in despair. So ifyou think of ads about lonely people, desolate people, overweight people, frightened people, unforgiven people, think of a ^r«-church, ^re-gospel, pre-mercy, ^rc-life bunch of folk. Once you were no people, once you had not received mercy. Ill And then the miracle! Not beer, not Coke, not diet, not aspirin. The miracle is that Jesus came into the world, gathered up the stranded people and made them into a new community. He called disciples, he called little children, he called publicans and sinners, he called tax collectors and fishermen ... all sorts of people who did not belong to each other, did...