The Kyrie This had become his lot in life. For Bartimaeus, he basically had no choice but to sit alongside the road and beg. Because Bartimaeus was blind, he had no idea, either, who the people were from whom he was begging. Thus, he couldn’t see if when they saw him, they stepped to the other side or scurried past him or looked the other way. He couldn’t see if they were merciful or not. All he could do was sit and beg. All he could hope for was the chance that someone might have a heart of mercy, and might be inclined to open a merciful hand and help him. If not, Bartimaeus was going to go hungry that day. If no one extended mercy to him that day, his life would remain destitute that day. You see, then, his life depended entirely upon the mercy of others. There was nothing he could do to provide for himself. He was totally dependent upon the goodness and mercy of others. I doubt any of us has ever been in such a destitute and dire dilemma. In a nation with welfare and so many charitable organizations, the thought that any of us might be in such great need is foreign to us. Sure, it still happens, even in America. But we personally do not, cannot sympathize with that condition. Even if you have at some point been in that condition, none of us has been in it everyday of our lives like blind Bartimaeus was. For us, should it have ever happened to us, usually all we needed was a little boost, a little extension of mercy, and we were out of our situation. Kind of like a car stuck in a ditch, all we needed was a little push from friends or a little tow from a truck and we were back on the road again. At least in comparison to blind Bartimaeus, that’s how life has basically been for us. Or has it? Sure, in comparison to many people in this world who literally don’t know where their next meal is coming from, we aren’t dependent upon the mercy of others. On the contrary, we’re the ones asked by others to have mercy on them. Hopefully, too, we’re inclined to extend mercy to such people. But in regard to ourselves, we virtually never see our need to cry for mercy. Yet, in this section of the service, in this line in our liturgy, that’s literally what we’re doing. We—yes, we who have been generously blessed—cry for mercy. Of course, the first noticeable difference is that our cry for mercy is not made to other men, many whom have no mercy. No, our cry for mercy ascends into heaven. Our cry for mercy goes straight to the source of all goodness and mercy. Our cry reaches the ear of the God who is in charge of all creation, the Fountainhead from which flows literally every aspect of creation. And like Bartimaeus, who when he heard that this same God was passing by in the person of Jesus, cried all the more loudly because he believed Jesus wouldn’t pass him by, so our cry for mercy is spoken in humility, yet in confidence. For we know the nature of our Lord. We know He is good and His mercy endures forever. It’s at this point, then, that we need to know who we really are. We’re not such self-sufficient people who are in such control of all circumstances in life that we are absolutely secure. Sure, for us, we honestly don’t see our situation as such that we think we should even bother to cry for mercy. Hopefully, though, all of us are clear-minded enough to recognize that we aren’t such powerful, in-charge, kind of people that our situation is always secure because of us. I mean, hopefully all of us are sober-minded enough to see that all it takes is one tornado or one fire to cause all our material possessions to be gone in a flash. All it takes is one heart attack or one stroke or one accident to cause our physical health to be so weak and damaged that we literally are dependent upon the mercy of others just to feed us or clean us. Yes, you see, whether we realize it or not, even in our health and wealth, we’re still completely dependent upon the mercy of God. And now, blessed are we when we realize and accept that reality. When we do, we won’t pass through life all smug and secure thinking we’ve got everything under control. On the contrary, we’ll be here in church. And while we’re here, we’ll recognize our need for mercy—God’s mercy. And as we recognize that need, we’ll be comforted. For we’ll know that no situation is as reassuring to us as our situation is when we place ourselves in the merciful hand of the merciful God. So now, that’s what we need to know about this section of the service. We need to know our daily need for mercy. We need to know we have a God—the one and only God—whose chief desire is to have mercy upon us. In fact, by now, even though we still aren’t too far into the liturgy, we should be seeing a common and comforting theme. We should be seeing why it’s always to our advantage and for our blessing to come to church. To review quickly, this is what happens when we’re here. When we’re here, we invoke, we call upon, the glorious and wonderful God to be here. And we believe that just like He said, so He does. The blessed Trinity is honestly with us here in a way that He’s not present anywhere else except in heaven. He’s here to serve us. He’s here to love us. He’s here to bless us. That’s what we believe. Yet, we also believe and recognize that when we come here, we come here with a serious problem. Our lives are contaminated with sin. Our week was marred with sin. And we have absolutely no power within us to deal with it. We can’t forgive ourselves. Yet, we desperately need forgiveness. So that’s why we’re here. For that’s what happens here. This holy and almighty God, this merciful and gracious Lord, truly does forgive us. He truly does take away all our sin and its guilt. He truly does welcome and receive us in His tender embrace. Furthermore, we come here because we know that when we’re here, this same awesome, incredible, unfathomable God literally stoops down to us and talks to us. And what He says to us through His blessed Word is not what we’ll ever hear out there. Only here and only through His Word (which, of course, we can and should read more than just in here), the wonderful Lord literally talks to us. And what He says is so wonderful to hear. For He tells us over and over how much He cares about us. He tells us how merciful and kind and good is He to us. So now, we come to this section of the service, this line in the liturgy. As we do, we’ve recognized already in three wonderful ways, how our most blessed God blesses us spiritually. At this point, though, we recognize that we are more like blind Bartimaeus than we realize. Yet, when we are clear-minded, we will realize that we are in need everyday of mercy. For we aren’t self-sufficient. We need help physically, not just spiritually. We need mercy. Yet, what compels us to come here and what blesses us when we’re here is knowing, believing, trusting in our merciful God. You see, we’re here because this is a unique opportunity. We know we aren’t alone here. No, we know and believe Jesus is here. Thus, like Bartimaeus cried out when he heard Jesus was passing by, this is our blessed opportunity to cry for mercy. Although our physical eyes are blind to His presence, like were the eyes of Bartimaeus, by faith, we know Jesus is here. By faith we know He hears. By faith we know He does extend mercy to us. You see, something significant and singular to this place happens when we are here. While I hesitate to compare what happens in church to what happens in such a simple activity as a car wash, I will—just because the analogy is so obvious. When you drive your car into an automated car wash, it begins the process covered with dirt and droppings and splatterings. Then it passes through a few phases before it comes out of the car wash clean and shiny. In an analogous way, that’s what happens here. We come here dirty with sin. We come here in need of help, both spiritually and physically. As the divine service progresses, those various needs are addressed and dealt with. As they are, we leave the service in a far cleaner, purer, fresher condition than when we came. Of course, as was said last week in regard to the reading of God’s Word, none of that happens simply because we’re here. That’s where the analogy breaks down. By the mere fact that we’re here doesn’t mean all those blessings happen. We aren’t simply a car that passes through each phase of the wash. In this case, the blessings and benefits bestowed upon us by God in and through the service happen only in and through faith. In other words, as was mentioned last week, the unbeliever who has no clue what’s going on doesn’t receive the benefit that the believer receives who by faith is focused on the blessings God bestows here. You see, then, don’t think that simply sitting in the pew and paying no attention or daydreaming or even doubting that anything significant happens here will result in you being blessed. On the contrary, only through your active participation and only through your faith connecting to the invisible nature of God and His promises will you be blessed. That means, then, on the positive side, when by faith you hold fast to the promises God has made to be here and to work in and through His Word will the result be blessings to you. Such blessings are not limited, either, just to the spiritual realm. That’s what the Kyrie is about. In the Kyrie, we recognize that we aren’t just spirit beings, but human beings who have a body and a spirit or soul. Both our body and our spirit are in need of divine mercy. So now, we recognize in this section of the service that our blessed Lord—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—definitely cares about our physical needs. That’s why we cry for mercy. That’s why we sing Kyrie eleison, “Lord, have mercy.” This cry for mercy is not another cry for forgiveness. After all, about one minute before this we had our sins forgiven. So even if in that minute we may have sinned already, we aren’t focusing on forgiveness now. We’re turning our attention for the time being to our body. We’re recognizing our need for physical provision, material needs. Our cry for mercy, though, is not akin to a beggar on the street pleading with a passerby. While the passage pertaining to blind Bartimaeus is the chief text for this section, we need to remember that we’re still children of God. We aren’t beggars before God. His grace has made us His children and brought us into His home. Yet, even then, our cry for mercy is still not spoken with a hearty, “Hey, how are you doing,” slap on the back. After all, any time any of us is in need of real mercy, we aren’t in a jovial mood. For example, when our children are sick at home and need some motherly care, they aren’t bouncing up and down with excitement. So also, neither do we in this section of the service. We’re recognizing we are in need of mercy. Thus, we aren’t at this moment in a celebratory, excited mood. But we are in a believing mood. That’s why, by the way, the music itself is somewhat solemn and somber. And for those of you who are interested in being fully involved in the service, the posture we adopt (which, I hope you realize is entirely voluntary and even then, not intended to be showy) when we cry for mercy is one of humility. Just like when you have a need you don’t arrogantly approach someone for help, but humbly entreat that person for help, when we approach our loving Lord, asking for mercy, the appropriate posture is one of folded hands and bowed head. Our folded hands are our acknowledgement that our hands are tied. We can’t help ourselves. We need mercy. Our bowed head suggests that we recognize we don’t make demands for mercy, but we humbly and respectfully plead for mercy. Even though we’re God’s children, we aren’t spoiled brats who make our Father bow to our will and our demands. We still recognize His freedom to do what He wants. At the same time, we believe that what He wants is to show us mercy. Thus, we humbly bow and humbly beseech the blessed Lord to be merciful to us. After all, whether we realize it or not—but hopefully we do—this is our lot in life, namely, to need mercy. While that may not sound like an appealing condition to be in, that’s the way it is. Yet, for us who are children of God, no better lot is ours. For when we cry for mercy from the heavenly Father who loves us, from Christ who saved us, from the Holy Spirit who comforts us, we can be sure, mercy is what we get. Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 20:23:37 +0000
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