Streams of Mercy

I heard a story on a televised worship service yesterday that gave me much to think about, and want to share it. Watchman Nee was a Chinese church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the 20th century. During his thirty years of ministry, Nee published many books about the Bible. He established churches throughout China and held many conferences to train Bible students and church workers. Following the Communist Revolution, Nee was persecuted and imprisoned for his faith and spent the last twenty years of his life in prison. It’s not permitted to copy the story and present it word for word, so I’m sharing a “revised” version, that departs from the original a bit, but is true to its message!

A poor, Christian Chinese farmer had rice fields high in the mountain. Every day he spent hours pumping water into the rice paddies; but when he returned to the fields the next morning, he would find that his unbelieving neighbor, who lived down the hill, had opened the dikes and drained the water to fill his own fields. For a while the Christian ignored the injustice, but at last he became desperate. His rice would die if this continued, and this was his livelihood. So he gathered his church, and they prayed and discussed the situation and came up with a plan. The next day the Christian farmer rose early in the morning and first filled his neighbor’s fields; then he attended his own. He counted his neighbor more significant than himself and looked to his neighbor’s interests as well as his own. Soon the neighbor wanted to know the Jesus whom the farmer served as Lord and master. He eventually came to faith by seeing how the mind of Christ radically reordered the attitude and thinking of his neighbor. He was forever transformed by his neighbor’s shining example of Christ.

In Romans 12:9-21, yesterday’s Epistle Reading, Paul tells the church at Rome to do essentially the same thing: to overcome evil with good. It feels at times as if evil is running rampant in our world today. Injustice, hatred, lawlessness, violence, and selfish ambition rule the day. This was also true in Paul’s day in the Greco-Roman world. Paul is calling on the believers in Rome to remember the sacrifice of Christ. Jesus didn’t destroy the world, He died for the sins of all. All the hatred, murder, violence, immorality, injustice, greed- Jesus died to save us from these things. He overcame sin, death, and hell by the greatest display of extravagant love ever, and we must arm ourselves with the same purpose. Do we want to change the world? Do we want to see things change? How do we overcome evil? Only when we can embrace those who do evil in our world with genuine love can we hope to respond to what they do in a way that will bring real change. We must respond to violence with forgiveness; to hatred with compassion, and to hostility with peace. We who have experienced grace of God are to become more gracious; we who have experienced the love of God are to become more loving. We are to engage in practices that promote life-giving relationships and in ways of being and doing that seek to embody genuine love, mutual regard, humility, peace and harmony.

We are to be about building relationships with others, and being willing to listen to vantage points of life that are outside our experience. When we do this, we have the chance not only to effect change, but to be changed ourselves, as well. As we embrace those who do evil, we have the chance to be a part of a change that can create peace and justice and freedom and joy. May God help us to learn the important lessons these days have to teach us; may God help us to be a part of the solution in these days, not a part of a continuing problem.

Elizabeth