Here’s to Two Old Sinners
Excerpt from Matthew 18:23-35
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”
Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver
In the mid-1970s my father and David H. C. Read, a well-known Scottish/American minister, were touring Germany together. In one city, David had arranged to meet the man who had been the commandant of the prisoner of war camp in which he was held during World War II. David was a high ranking officer at the time, so the two men had come to know one another rather well. They had not seen each other for thirty years, however, and David was nervous about how it would go. As a commandant, the German man had not been cruel, but he had been an enemy. So David did not know how either of them would react upon seeing one another again.
They arranged to meet at the hotel. David was clear that he wanted to face the man alone, but he asked my father to return an hour or two later, just in case things were not going well.
My father told me that when he left the room, his friend was straightening his tie, as visibly anxious as a young man going on a date. But when my father returned to their room a couple of hours later, he found the two men in shirt sleeves and with ties off, drinking scotch, engrossed in friendly conversation. When David saw my father, he smiled and asked, “Would you like to join two old sinners in a drink?”
Notice: two sinners. When you are a sinner who knows that you have received mercy, you are better able to extend mercy to another, to do your part in the dynamic flow of mercy received and mercy given.
Prayer
God, help me to take my part in the endless echo of grace, by receiving mercy when it is my time to receive, and by giving mercy when it is my turn to give.
|
