ANOTHER CHANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25364, 23 October 1943, Page 3

ANOTHER CHANCE

Written for the Otago Daily Times By the Rev. Gardner Miller

That’s a striking short story in the 13th chapter of Luke (verses 6-9) where Jesus uncovers a great truth which many even yet are reluctant to accept. It is the truth that God gives men another chance. I would not like you to think that men only get one chance in a lifetime to mend their ways. I believe we all get hundreds of “ breaks ” —shall I say?—from God, and most of us accept them with nothing more than a passing thought. It has always been a belief of mine that the crushing law that you reap what you sow, that effect must follow cause, is offset and softened and often nullified by another law, the law of mercy. And arising from that belief has come the conviction that not even death determines a man’s destiny, that beyond death mercy continues her gracious work. God, to me, is not One who is without feeling, even ordinary human feeling, and Who insists on retribution, but is One who is so human, so understanding, that He is constantly seeking to woo us from our sins by the outflow and overflow of His mercy. It is not repentance that brings us forgiveness; it is forgiveness (mercy) that produces repentance. So it is that when men and women, bearing the obvious marks of careless living, of indulged sin. come to my room I always see the kind of men and women they could be, the kind of men and women I believe God sees they will be, if only they accepted the mercy of God. And I have seen the miracle happen so often that I get fresh confirmation of my own belief that the law of mercy is the law of another chance, the law that breaks up the law of reaping what you sow. The little story of the fig tree in the vineyard that Jesus told is a telling example of the truth that mercy goes a long way, and waits, for a response. Is it strange to read about a fig tree growing—or being stunted in growth—among grapes? Why was it there at all? I believe there is a gracious thought here: it is that many have to live their lives in strange—perhaps uncongenial—surroundings with little opportunity to develop fully, and that God, Who understands, makes allowances in His mercy. But here I am met with a strong retort from some very good people, that, since God is God, therefore you get your just deserts. These good people simply mean that when you see pain and misery and loss these things are the results of misdeeds. It is astonishing the number of people who say, “Ah, lie is just being punished' for what he did.” I often wonder if these people have ever read the Book of Job. If they did they would find that belief exploded. Jesus Himself makes it clear—in the verses preceding the story in Luke—that Tit for Tat is Unchristian

Agitated people had come to Him with the tales of two terrible tragedies that had happened recently. A company of people from Galilee had been cut down at the very altar in the temple at Jerusalem by order of Pilate. A tower at the Pool of Siloam had fallen and killed 18 persons, probably sick folk seeking health from the medicinal waters.

The popular belief was that such terrible happenings could happen only to those who had sinned deeply. Suffering such as this could be the result only of terrible wrongdoing. Jesus swept the cruel assertion aside. Never was He less tied by religious tradition than at this moment. These people, He said, did not die their terrible death as a judgment. What happened to them was not a result of God’s displeasure. The idea is preposterous. God is not like that. Yet, He went on, there is a lesson for the nation to learn out of this. Unless Jewry repents and changes its way from vindictiveness and hotheaded nationalism and seeks God’s way of life for them, the nation will perish. Forty years later it happened. The nation was wiped om by the Romans. If the nation had repented and received Him as her Messiah she would never have incurred Rome’s vengeance. But the doom was not the result of individual wrongdoing; it was the result of national perversity, just as we see doom slowly accumulating for Germany as the result of the same spirit operating. The mercy of God is an individual thing, it gets alongside you in your difficult situation (like a fig tree in a vinery), and opens up ways and means for nullifying the slow march of retribution. What makes one “lost in wonder, love, and praise” is God’s abounding mercy to sinners. The “tit for tat” with God! He scorns such mean tactics. It is mercy multiplied until its sheer generosity makes us turn our faces towards Him. And that leads me to ask, What of Eternity? Is there mercy beyond the grave? Another chance there? Why not? Is God any different there from here? Is the quality of mercy strained on the other side of the grave? What of the many whose lives are suddenly cut off and who never had a proper chance to pull themselves together? Is the door slammed on them because some accident, say, cut off their lives here? Beware of shutting up God in a religious box. The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Him, yet there are those who make Him a mechanical register. I have two things to say about all this. The first is that it is possible for us to shut God out of our lives, here and hereafter. And the second is that I cannot think of God’s mercy ever being defeated. I cannot reconcile these two things. But between them I see Jesus and I am not afraid.