Links for today’s readings:
Sep 28 Read: Lamentations 3 Listen: (5:10) Read: Romans 1 Listen: (5:02)
Scripture Focus: Lamentations 3.19-23, 32-33
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone.
Reflection: Time to Make the Mercy Known
By John Tillman
“Time to make the mercy.”
This inside joke between my wife and me mashes up “His mercies are new every morning” with an old Dunkin’ Donuts commercial. (NIV uses “compassions” instead of “mercies”)
In the famous “Time to make the donuts” commercial, Fred the Baker exits and enters his door at all hours. Exiting, he says, “Time to make the donuts.” Entering, weary and worn by weather and work, he says, “I made the donuts.” This continues repeatedly until he meets himself coming in the door, saying a final time, “I made the donuts.”
I don’t remember when I first made this little joke, but it was probably inspired by the old worship chorus, “The Steadfast Love of the Lord.” It has been a consistent, light-hearted way to keep this verse and thought alive in our hearts. It refreshes me to picture God, laboring as the baker (perhaps with some flour on his clothing and sweat on his brow) to make afresh new mercies for each day.
But the mercy that Jeremiah spoke about is not some light and fluffy donut.
Would you have guessed (if you didn’t know) that this encouraging line comes from a book of poems called Lamentations? Probably not. Separated from its context, the phrase sounds so cheery it can seem trite.
When things go awfully, horribly wrong in life, encouragement from people who seem to never have had anything go wrong doesn’t help. When someone whose worst day ever was spilling their coffee or dropping a donut tells us, “His mercies are new every morning,” it’s understandable to roll our eyes. When Jeremiah says it, we can trust it.
Jeremiah said that God does not “willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.” But he also said God has “broken my teeth with gravel” and “all that I had hoped from the Lord” is gone. From this painful and broken place, Jeremiah speaks about God’s mercies, compassion, and loyal love.
The mercy Jeremiah described saved him from being consumed or crushed in his pain. God’s mercy is “battle-tested” by Jeremiah and many before us. It is tough enough for the toughest things we will face.
Not only do we need that kind of loyal love and mercy, everyone around us does too. God has already “made the mercy” through Christ’s cross. It is finished.
It is time for us to make Christ’s mercy known.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Be seated on your lofty throne, O most high; O Lord, judge the nations. — Psalm 7.8
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.
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