The Second Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 5 Year A

2nd Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 5A June 11, 2023 “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” Jesus is quoting Hosea 6:6 in our gospel reading for today: Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ But I also know this passage as one of Matt Devenney’s favorite bible verses. It’s strange that I know that this is one of Matt Devenney’s favorite bible verses, but I never actually knew Matt Devenney. Matt was the Executive Director of Stewpot years before I got there. By the time I started working at Stewpot in the late 90’s/early 2000’s, the soup kitchen in inner city Jackson had expanded dramatically and had moved from the gas station across the street to the former Presbyterian church whose fellowship hall had been transformed into the heart of the soup kitchen where people from all over Jackson would gather to enjoy a daily, hot meal. Stewpot’s executive director had been a friend of Matt’s, and sometimes he talked about him, while pointing to the photo of Matt holding his young son that watched over us all from a prominent place in the lunchroom. On June 19, 1991, the 33 year old Matt Devenney had confronted a man named John D. Smith who had a gun with him where everyone was gathering outside for lunch. In an effort to protect the community, Matt had told John that he couldn’t be there with a gun. John was not unknown to Matt. Matt had been working with him, trying to help him as John had been discharged from the Army with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, and had received treatment in both a state hospital and a veterans' medical center. After Matt confronted John, John began moving away across the street, and Matt moved toward him. Some of the witnesses suggested that Matt was trying to protect the group of men gathered behind him in case John decided to fire into the crowd. John shouted at Matt that he couldn’t stop him from having a gun because he was the governor of Mississippi, and then he turned and shot Matt in the chest two times at close range. John was arrested later that day. Matt died, leaving behind a wife and a two year old son. Matt was buried wearing a medallion that had been given to him by his sister. On the front is an image of Jesus on the back are the words of Matthew 9:13: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” i I was working at Stewpot 10 years after Matt’s death, and in my three years there, I learned as much or more as I learned in my three years of seminary. Matt’s legacy of tending toward mercy had created a community that was a glimpse into the kingdom of God: a place where all can come to be fed, where all sit together around the table, where people come to serve and be served and where there is mutuality in those relationships. As I would eat lunch with those folks every day, working with them, creating friendships and relationships, I realized that they had so much less than me, and yet that had so much more gratitude for the gift of each new day. I learned that every single one of us is able to give or show mercy and that every single one of us is in need of mercy, from God and from our fellow children of God. We fool ourselves when we think we don’t need mercy, and this is what Jesus is trying to teach us and the Pharisees in today’s gospel: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” We are, each and every one of us, made in the image and likeness of God, and each and every one of us falls short of the glory of God. None of us is truly righteous, and every one of us is in need of mercy—lovingkindness, forgiveness, grace. When we believe that we are not in need of mercy, when we think we have it all together or all figured out is when we harden our hearts like the Pharisees, who were faithful religious people just like us, and we begin to question who deserves mercy and a place at Jesus’s table. So, what does it mean to show or to receive mercy? Many of us think of showing mercy as giving to those who beg from us, and there is certainly mercy wrapped up in that. But what if seeking and showing mercy is broader and wider than giving to beggars? What if showing mercy means inviting the new kid to sit with you at lunch or expanding your circle of friendship beyond its normal or natural bounds? What if mercy means being patient with someone when you are running out of patience to give? What if mercy means putting yourself in someone else’s shoes in daily encounters, or offering someone the benefit of the doubt before rushing to judgement? What if mercy means being honest but tempering that honesty with kindness? What if mercy means looking for the humanity in others and responding to that? Can you think of a time when you felt called to show someone mercy? Can you think of a time when you were in need of mercy or someone gave it to you without you having to ask for it? “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” i. Some of these details are found in the Sojourner’s article titled A Teacher of Mercy by Joyce Hollyday: https://sojo.net/magazine/october-1991/teacher-mercy