Sermon on the Mount - Mercy and Forgiveness

Wednesday Readings List

April 6, 2016

Sermon on the Mount - Mercy and Forgiveness

 

Hymn 340
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.

 

For the love of God is broader
Than is seen by human mind,
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.

 

We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.

Matt. 4:23
Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

 

Matt. 5:2, 7
And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, … Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

 

Matt. 6:9 (to :), 12, 14
After this manner therefore pray ye: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. … For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

 

Matt. 18:21-22
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

 

Matt. 7:1-2 (to :), 3, 5, 12

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: … And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? … Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

 

Matt. 9:13
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

 

Ps. 100:5
For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

 

Ps. 51:1-2, 10, 12
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. … Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. … Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

 

Jonah 1:1-2; 3: 3, 5, 10 (to ;); 4:1, 6-7, 9-11
Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

 

So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.

 

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way;

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

 

And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. … And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, . . . should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand?

 

Lam. 3:22-23
It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

 

Eph. 4:32
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

 

Eph. 2:4-6, 10

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: … For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

 

Luke 7:36-48
And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

 

I John 3:17-18; 4:11-12
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

 

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Science & Health:

 

SH 6:17
“God is Love.”

 

SH 465:14
The attributes of God are justice, mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on.

 

SH 19:6;
Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, the divine Principle of Jesus’ teachings, and this truer sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit, — the law of divine Love.

 

SH 18:3-5, 6-9
Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man’s oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage. … He did life’s work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals, — to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility.

 

SH 11:1
Jesus’ prayer, “Forgive us our debts,” specified also the terms of forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he said, “Go, and sin no more.”

 

SH 16:24; 17:6-7
Here let me give what I understand to be the spiritual sense of the Lord’s Prayer:

 

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

 

And Love is reflected in love;

 

SH 362:1-12; 363:8-9
It is related in the seventh chapter of Luke’s Gospel that Jesus was once the honored guest of a certain Pharisee, by name Simon, though he was quite unlike Simon the disciple. While they were at meat, an unusual incident occurred, as if to interrupt the scene of Oriental festivity. A “strange woman” came in. Heedless of the fact that she was debarred from such a place and such society, especially under the stern rules of rabbinical law, as positively as if she were a Hindoo pariah intruding upon the household of a high-caste Brahman, this woman (Mary Magdalene, as she has since been called) approached Jesus. . . . Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adoration? No! He regarded her compassionately.

 

SH 476:28-5
When speaking of God’s children, not the children of men, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you;” that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God’s image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.

 

SH 475:28-1
Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not God’s man.

 

SH 230:11-16
It would be contrary to our highest ideas of God to suppose Him capable of first arranging law and causation so as to bring about certain evil results, and then punishing the helpless victims of His volition for doing what they could not avoid doing. Good is not, cannot be, the author of experimental sins.

 

SH 251:20
[T]he divine Mind makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind, and the healer of sin, disease, death. This process of higher spiritual understanding improves mankind until error disappears, and nothing is left which deserves to perish or to be punished.

 

SH 340:23-25, 28-29
One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, “Love thy neighbor as thyself;” . . . . annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.

 

SH 364:17
Do Christian Scientists seek Truth as Simon sought the Saviour, through material conservatism and for personal homage? Jesus told Simon that such seekers as he gave small reward in return for the spiritual purgation which came through the Messiah. If Christian Scientists are like Simon, then it must be said of them also that they love little.

 

SH 366:12-19, 22-24
The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow-being is deficient in human affection, and we have the apostolic warrant for asking: “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” Not having this spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which alone confers the healing power.

 

The physician must also watch, lest he be overwhelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the unveiling of sin in his own thoughts.

 

SH 542:1 (only), 8-9

 

The belief of life in matter sins at every step. … Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon error the mark of the beast.

 

SH 329:26 (only)
The pardon of divine mercy is the destruction of error.

 

SH 365:15-30, 31-2
If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine. If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to win his own pardon, and such commendation as the Magdalen gained from Jesus, then he is Christian enough to practise scientifically and deal with his patients compassionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual intent.

 

If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its way into the chambers of disease through the would-be healer, it would, if it were possible, convert into a den of thieves the temple of the Holy Ghost, — the patient’s spiritual power to resuscitate himself. The poor suffering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace, patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear Father’s loving-kindness.

 

SH 497:24
[W]e solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

 

SH 248:29
Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, health, holiness, love — the kingdom of heaven — reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.

 

Hymn 163
Jesus, what precept is like thine:
Forgive, as ye would be forgiven;
If heeded, O what power divine
Would then transform our earth to heaven.So from our hearts must ever flow
A love that will all wrong outweigh;
Our lips must only blessings know,
And wrath and sin shall die away.For it is Mind’s most holy plan
To bring the wanderer back by love;
Then let us win our brother man,
And glorify our God above.

 

Hymn 445
I awake each morn to a brand-new day,
Singing Hallelujah! as I go on my way,
For my heart is fixed on this one guarantee:
The Love that is All holds me tenderly.
 
REFRAIN
 
Tender mercies, oh tender mercies,
Tender mercies are holding me.
Tender mercies, oh tender mercies,
Tender mercies are holding me.I can walk with Love through the valley of fear,
Singing Hallelujah! my Savior is here!
The desert of my longing no hope can fulfill,
But Love meets all need and bids want be still.
 
REFRAIN
 
So no matter the need and no matter the threat,
I’m secure in Your love, no fear, no regret.
Can there be a sweeter comfort, a grace more divine,
Than the thought that Your love is here and is mine?
 
REFRAIN

 

 

Wednesday Readings List