Crumbs of Mercy

"But she said, 'Yes, Lord; but even the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters.'" (Matthew 15: 27)

The woman says that people allow the dogs under the table, where the crumbs fall. It is a blessed thing that the more crumbs there are, the more dogs there are also! The greater the duty! However, the people of God are perishing more and more.

The crumb is mercy. But where is it? It is under the table. It is not high above us; it is not in great spiritual experiences. God's benevolence reveals itself in the meeting of humility and mercy.

In Psalm 22 Jesus, the only one who was not a dog, cries and laments thus: "Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has enclosed me." Everybody is a dog compared to holiness. But it matters whether I am a barking, snarling, cursing, scornful dog or whether I am one that slips under the table to get the crumbs. In the countries of the middle east, the tables are not as tall as in our country. Here, you can slip underneath one quite easily, but there the legs of the tables are much shorter. Slip underneath one like that, if you can! If I am a big dog, I will not be able to do it. But if I am a little dog, I will manage. If I cannot slip underneath that table, I will not be able to slip into heaven and under God's mercy either. Let us humble ourselves in order to receive the infinite mercy of God.


[FV, HFTR]

The Shining

"Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, "Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace." So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.'" (Numbers 6:22-27)

It’s important to listen carefully to God speaking to us in these verses, because our liturgy for Sunday worship closes with a benediction that is usually quoted from these verses. So this passage is so familiar to us that it is in danger of being as empty and sentimental as the text of a commercial greeting card. Yet in its historical context of God speaking to His chosen people, to the Church, it is not sentimental at all, but a shocking and urgent commandment of the Gospel...

The "face of God" is crucial in the last two of three pairs of states or conditions invoked in this so-called "Aaronic blessing". What can it mean, first of all, for Yahweh's face to shine upon the sons of Israel, upon the members of our church? It has a very nice soothing and poetic sound to it; but it becomes weighty and mysterious if you attend to its strangeness.

So I was thinking a lot about these words throughout the week, and as I was walking in the center of town saw hundreds or thousands of faces, most of them looking numb or sad. Certainly none of them could be described as "shining". But then something ordinary but illuminating happened: I saw two very good friends whom I had not seen for a good while, and their faces immediately beamed involuntarily with broad smiles when they recognized me in the stream of faces. And I realized that God's face shining must have something to do with love-filled pleasure at the face of another.

This impelled me to search for anything like this in the Scriptures. I searched the whole Bible, and I found just two instances of this happening; two instances, but one face, one face that calls forth the torrent of God's pleasure. Words prophesied by Isaiah, and quoted as fulfilled in Matthew 12, are spoken by God Himself at the Baptism of Jesus -- and in one other instance, at His Transfiguration: "This is my Son I love in whom I am very, very pleased."

So how can this part of Aaron's blessing be fulfilled for us, be concretely experienced by us? How can he look at a face as numb and sad as ours and shine on it with pleasure? The answer is plain -- only if He recognizes in us the face of His Son....


[PV, in a sermon of November 14, 2010]]

Neginoth

The essence of suffering has a mystery attached to it. Suffering for the gospel implies suffering together with the gospel. Suffering together with the gospel is to be in fellowship with the good news. Why is there so much suffering in the world? We don't know; but neither do we know what light is, what the atom is. But what we don't know now, we can know in the future.

Richard once asked a seven-year-old boy whether he knew what a logarithm was. The boy answered, "Yes, I do. A logarithm is something I will learn all about in high school."

The disciples did not understand the Christ in Jesus, but they believed in Him. This is why He said, "Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me."

Accepting suffering is a question of trust.

The subtitle of the fourth psalm speaks of neginoth, meaning a stringed instrument; Richard believed it also meant the song of a person expressing the joy of being defeated.


[FV, 2010]

Seeking a Jonathan, being a Jonathan

"Jonathan ... loved David with his whole soul." (1 Samuel 20:17)

"You shall certainly not die," says Jonathan to his friend David, whose life has just been sought by Saul. Although he conquered Goliath, the Philistine giant who had cursed Israel`s God, David has to flee before the king of his own people. His options are limited and a feeling of defenselessness overcomes him. "And my heart has failed me," he cries. There seems to be no way out. The fact that he is God`s chosen has become a burden to him; it is an unbearable weight to be the holder of "the irrevocable calling" of God. (Romans 11:29) Jonathan, King Saul`s son, and consequently, the heir apparent to the throne, realizes that his persecuted friend is the chosen one of the Eternal and he helps David with his whole heart. Not only in spite of his father, but also in spite of himself and his own expected throne. For he loved David "with his whole soul."

The two friends argue. David can only see what is obvious. A net is closing in on him and there is no escaping the army of the king. Death is only a few steps away. Jonathan believes that to him who has been sent by God, many things may happen. He may be oppressed and persecuted and incriminated -- but he cannot perish. He foresees that "the Lord will cut off all the enemies of David from the face of the earth."(1 Samuel 20:15) Do we have a friend like this who is able to lift our eyes above the things we can see? Someone who believes that God will work out, in us and with us, all that He has begun? Do we have someone on whom we can count when in trouble?

Everyone can find someone who is good to him or her for a short while. But who can find a true friend who is able to show him or her God`s presence and providence in their life? If not, we have to state cynically and disconsolately with Jean-Paul Sartre that "we have no father, there is nobody up there: we are all orphans."

Jonathan swears that if he finds out that his father wants to have David killed, he will let his friend know so that David can stay away from the royal court. A faithful friend obstructs the passage of hatred and of "the father of lies" who "was a murderer from the beginning." (John 8:44).

It is not enough that I be a good friend to my friends. I must also take care not to deprive them of Christ, of the True Friend, "the brother born for adversity." (Proverbs 17:17)


[PV, 2003]