The story is told in the Koue Bokkeveld of the farm labourer who had a traveller stop on the dirt road on the farm. There was a rather large ditch, filled with water, crossing the road, and the traveller asked how deep the ditch was. The labourer replied that it couldn't be more than two or three inches, showing the depth with his fingers. The traveller, reassured, drove into the puddle, and his entire car was submerged. Coming to the surface of the water, sputtering, the man demanded an explanation: "Why did you tell me it was only a couple of inches deep?" "I don't understand," the labourer said, bewildered, "it only comes up to the belly of the ducks and they have such short legs!"
Perspective. The depth of the ditch was a matter of perspective. From the point of view of the labourer, it was pretty shallow. From the perspective of the car owner, it was deep. Reality didn't change, but the perception of it did!
In the Old Testament the prophet Micah, in chapter 6, verse 8, proclaims: [The Lord] “has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
It’s easy for Micah to say, but very hard for us to do. Our God has a standard by which he expects us to live. We can’t do it, even when we think it’s possible. It is easy to say we can. The biggest problem is that it is not just the deeds that count. It is our thoughts and words too. When you think, just for a short moment, that that someone who is annoying you should drop dead, you’ve fallen short of the expected mark of mercy God sets for you.
What is worse is when you believe the good that you do is good enough for God. Jesus puts you to shame when he says: If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.
Loving your neighbour alone won’t get you into heaven. Doing good works alone won’t get you into heaven. Giving without expecting something back alone won’t get you into heaven. These works that we do are wonderful things, especially when they flow from our life of faith. But when works displace faith, they are nothing. Heathens do these things because it’s the right thing to do. All to often we do these things expecting a Divine pat on the back. But what about those times when we do good works out of spite? That’s taking a merciful thing and turning it into a sinful thing.
No wonder we read Luke chapter six and cringe. We can’t begin to do the things Jesus expects us to do. When we do them out of spite or because we are trying to be nice to God, we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s not enough.
Our error begins when we forget who we are, and assume that we can take God's place and judge one another. Jesus begins our Gospel lection today with the words, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” We are, Jesus says, to be like God. We are to imitate God - but not try to do what only God can do. Because God is merciful toward us, we are to be merciful toward others - and merciful in just the same way. But we are to remember that he is God, and we are not.
The second mistake is that we actually judge another person. God forgives us, but we take it upon ourselves to judge and not forgive. Now, you might merely judge them by thinking evil of them. That, all by itself, is sin and can injure that person by colouring how you deal with them. You may also judge them by speaking evil of them. People often judge others by gossip. And every time you listen to gossip you encourage and enable this evil against another, and every time you repeat something other than good about your neighbour, you condemn them to live with a tarnished reputation, with snickering and finger-pointing going on behind their backs. You find them guilty of whatever the gossip is, and sentence them to the sorts of things that follow when someone's good name is stolen from them.
Another error of passing judgment on someone else is that we forget that we are just like them. There are people who are offended by us. They probably have no real reason to be, but they just are. Maybe they think that we should be different- we should do something we do not, or stop doing something we are doing. We might be too calm, or we are too excitable. We are snobbish and arrogant, or we meddle with everyone's affairs. Everyone has their weaknesses and shortcomings. It is worth our remembering that our neighbours see our shortcomings more clearly than we can imagine! We assume our idiosyncrasies are minor - and perhaps even a little endearing. We presume that we are not like those we judge.
But God says otherwise. In fact, he tells us that when we judge someone else, we establish the criteria by which he will judge us! We set the standards for our own judgment. We establish just how tolerant, or how demanding and sensitive, God should be when he examines our life and conduct. We proclaim by judging others that we want God to be as easily offended and as sensitive to misdeed and as suspicious about our intentions as we are about those we presume to judge. Every evil thought you have about another sets the standard for God's judgment of you.
The problem is how we view the sins and weaknesses of others while at the same time not noticing, or dismissing, our own. It is easy to do, and almost everybody does it once in a while.
Maybe the Swedes are on to something with what they call lagom. Lagom doesn’t have a direct English translation. The closest thing we have is “just right”. Swedes, and to an extent Norwegians, it would seem are happy with what they have. It’s a defence mechanism against the hoarding and commercialism that are all too prevalent in our world. Why have two, when one is enough? Lagom almost certainly has its origins in the Vikings as they passed the drinking horn around the boat. You would drink lagom if there was enough for the whole crew. So lagom is not only ‘just right’ but also seems to have an in-built consideration for others.
Why do we close our fists and shake them at God or our neighbour when, with little extra effort, our hands could be open to receive good things from God through our neighbour? He gives all things “just right”, especially in his giving of his only-begotten Son Jesus. Romans chapter eight begins by saying that “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
That is real good news. God is not watching you and waiting for you to mess up so he can nail you. He’s already nailed his Son to a cross on your behalf. Though Jesus was blameless, he allowed all your sin to be put on himself. Because Jesus takes the consequences for your sins, our heavenly Father gives you forgiveness and life instead of holding you accountable for your sin and sentencing you to eternal death. You don’t need anything else. Christ’s death and resurrection is lagom, just right, for you.
All creation groans for a life of lagom. We have a bit of it now when the Holy Spirit gathers us around altar, pulpit, and font in the liturgies of the church. Our Lord Jesus Christ washes us clean of sin in our Baptism, declares us forgiven when we come to confession, strengthens our faith through what is preached, and feeds us forgiveness and salvation in the Sacrament of the altar. We walk out those doors privileged to live according to the standards of God. When we fall short, and we will fall short, we trust in Jesus Christ to remove the plank from our eye so we may in mercy help our neighbour remove the speck from their eye. All creation groans for that day. When that day comes, we will see our merciful Saviour face-to-face. Then all will be lagom, just right, for eternity.
May God bless you through the week ahead so that your life might be lagom – just right.
