Have Mercy.

Mercy is a powerful word when spoken to power.  Paul reminds us, we need each other - especially the most vulnerable people in our world.

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Transcript

Sermons from Mission Hills UCC

San Diego, California

Rev. Dr. David Bahr

david.bahr@missionhillsucc.org

January 26, 2025

“Have Mercy”

1st Corinthians 12: 14-27 – Common English Bible

14 Certainly the body isn’t one part but many. 15 If the foot says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not a hand,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? 16 If the ear says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not an eye,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, what would happen to the hearing? And if the whole body were an ear, what would happen to the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God has placed each one of the parts in the body just like he wanted. 19 If all were one and the same body part, what would happen to the body? 20 But as it is, there are many parts but one body. 21 So the eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” or in turn, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” 22 Instead, the parts of the body that people think are the weakest are the most necessary. 23 The parts of the body that we think are less honorable are the ones we honor the most. The private parts of our body that aren’t presentable are the ones that are given the most dignity. 24 The parts of our body that are presentable don’t need this. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the part with less honor 25 so that there won’t be division in the body and so the parts might have mutual concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it. 27 You are the body of Christ and parts of each other. 

Imagine hearing the words, “I don’t need you.”  Ouch, right?  “You don’t matter to me.”  Imagine the distress Paul must have felt when he heard that the Corinthian followers of Christ were saying, “Your wellbeing is of no concern to me.”  Why would they say such things?  Because that’s how the world worked.  Slaves were inferior.  Women had no power.  The rich were naturally more important than everyone else.  That’s how the world worked.

But, he said, think of yourselves as a body.  And a body is made of many parts.  The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you.”  The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” 22 Instead, Paul said, “the parts of the body that people think are the weakest are the most necessary. 23 The parts of the body that we think are less honorable are the ones we honor the most. The private parts that aren’t presentable are the ones to be given the most dignity. 24 …God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the part with less honor 25 so that there won’t be division and so the parts might have mutual concern for each other.”  

We heard a poignant lesson this week about just such thing when the Right Reverend Mariann Budde gave a sermon[1] and spoke directly to the new president of the United States about “the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals… 

As the apostle Paul said, the weakest are the most necessary.  The less honorable are the ones we honor the most.  Give the most dignity to the least presentable.  We need each other.  

The bishop continued, “They may not be citizens but they pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara, and temples. I ask you to have mercy.”

Paul called into question his world, his church, built on hierarchy.  Does that sound like Paul?  It depends on which Paul we’re talking about.  Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan argue there were actually “three Pauls in the New Testament:”[2]  There is the “radical” Paul of the letters that Paul genuinely wrote, seven letters,[3] including this radically egalitarian one to the Corinthians.  You’ll recall the he exhorted the Galatians:  “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  Elsewhere he praised the women leaders of the church.  

But then other people writing in Paul’s name in three disputed letters[4], disputed that he actually wrote them; they began to dilute the equality practiced in the church.  They increasingly established the very inequalities Paul had denounced. 

And finally, there is the “reactionary” Paul of the three inauthentic letters – the ones that it’s doubtful he genuinely wrote.[5]  Those are the “women be silent” and “slaves be obedient” letters.  Reactionary against equality.  How some things never change…

Borg and Crossan argue that the more institutionalized the early church became, the less it looked like the communities Paul founded.  You can hear Paul’s frustration in this letter as it began to happen – people arguing that some gifts, and therefore some people, are more important than others.  Certainly nothing at all like Jesus would have said. “The church slowly but steadily deradicalized to fit Roman social norms regarding slavery, patriarchy, and wealth,” increasingly tempted to mirror the way the outside world treats people.  

And once the church gained power under Emperor Constantine, all of these ideals were so reversed, the church actually became the instrument of an oppressive hierarchy, and in many places, it still is, even though it is counter to what Paul, or Jesus Christ, taught.   

The last lines of today’s reading from chapter 12 sum this up as an instruction to “strive for the greater gifts.”  The chapter transitions to the very familiar words – “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (That’s the context.)  2 And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.”  

That’s the context.  The weakest are the most necessary.  And like the human body built of bones and muscles and blood – we have need of them all.  We need each other.  I need you.

In her sermon, Bishop Budde proclaimed that a nation is built on three pillars:  honoring the inherent dignity of every human being, honesty and humility.  But then she realized there is a fourth pillar; she added one more necessary ingredient:  Mercy.  And so, she pleaded, Have mercy on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.  For gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families who fear for their lives.  Help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.

Very much like scripture teaches in Leviticus 19:  “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.  The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.  Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”  Have mercy.

But during the week we learned that two specific ways the church has historically been involved in ministry have been taken away.  Two ways the church has traditionally exercised mercy and the love of neighbor are no longer permitted, at least temporarily.  

One of the executive orders I hadn’t heard on the news immediately suspends refugee resettlement “until such time as the further entry aligns with the interests of the United States.”  

Among others, World Relief, an organization of evangelical churches, lamented this order and, of interest to their members, noted this will include the recent resettlements of nearly 30,000 Christians fleeing religious persecution in their countries:

Souzan held a Bible study in her home for several years.  A seemingly benign, everyday activity.  But one day two new people showed up.  She wondered, did they want to learn about the Bible and become Christians, or what was their purpose?  Soon, they realized they were being watched.  Given the well-documented Iranian repression of Christians and other religious minorities, they knew they could be imprisoned or worse and made the difficult decision to go to Indonesia, where they could obtain visas.  They hoped to stay for just a short time, but the refugee process is very slow.  They ended up there for twelve years, struggling to support themselves because they were ineligible to work lawfully.  Finally, Souzan and her children were approved for resettlement to the United States and arrived in Spokane, Washington, in September 2023.  She said, “my life in Iran was very good… we lived like rich people … But we could not go to church.  We could not pray.  So, I chose the freedom to pray, freedom to go anywhere.  Especially for my children.”  

They were three of nearly 250 Iranian Christians resettled to the U.S. in 2023.[6]  But of course our concern isn’t just for Christians, yet this story demonstrates how a broad ban hurts more people than you think.

The head of the Lutheran resettlement agency noted that theirs is “a mission that has never been about politics; it’s about people.  

Refugees undergo rigorous vetting before ever setting foot on American soil, including multiple background checks by national security agencies.”  Federal agencies and faith-based groups collaborate closely to integrate and position “them to quickly become vital contributors to their new communities.”  People, not politics.

People like those that Paul reminds the Corinthians:  The weakest are the most necessary.  The less honorable are the ones we honor the most.  Give the most dignity to the least presentable.

The second mission of mercy that the church is no longer permitted to offer is sanctuary, a place of refuge where immigration authorities cannot enter.  Literally sacred space.  Once again, not about politics but a core religious value.  Disallowing this hinders religious liberty.

Imagine the distress Paul felt when he heard the Corinthian followers of Christ were saying, “I don’t need you.”  Inexcusable among those who follow Christ, raised on the Torah, about treating the foreigner residing among as you treat your native-born.  Love them as yourself, he said.  Love them or otherwise you’re just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  

Bishop Budde’s sermon quietly promoting mercy unleased fury and threats of death and deportation for herself.  Just this morning I learned of House Resolution 59.  It states:  “the Right Reverend Mariann Budde, the bishop leading the inaugural prayer service, used her position inappropriately, promoting political bias instead of advocating the full counsel of biblical teaching: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That — the House of Representatives condemns the Right Reverend Mariann Budde’s distorted message.”[7]

This is the government’s attempt to regulate religious teachings.

She said, “I'm saddened by the level of vitriol that it has evoked in others, and the intensity of it.  We don't have to go to the highest extremes of contempt when we are in a position of disagreement.  I would listen to your views, and I would honor them.  If we could get that back as a country, we would go a long way in being able to work together to address the many problems that we face.”[8] 

I’m grateful she dared the opportunity to speak of one of our core religious values.  To simply have mercy.  Show compassion and empathy.  For the idea of mercy to be seen as so contemptable shows the power of the gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when it is actually proclaimed.   Thank God she spoke up.  The question is now, what will we do?

[1] https://pres-outlook.org/2025/01/after-eyebrow-raising-sermon-to-trump-bishop-budde-beset-with-criticism-and-praise/
[2] The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon, Harper One, 2009
[3] Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon
[4] Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians
[5] 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus
[6] https://worldrelief.org/content/uploads/2024/10/StateoftheGoldenDoor2024.pdf
[7] https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-resolution/59/text
[8] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14315883/Woke-bishop-Mariann-Budde-plea-Trump-service.html