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We’ve been going through a series entitled “God is”, looking at the character of God, and this morning I want to talk about the God who is merciful. Each of these characteristics is challenging to communicate, and this one uniquely so because it depends so much on your perspective, from where you are standing. When I say “God is merciful” some of you feel tears welling up in your eyes as you say Amen, because that connects to the core of who you are. And some of you say, eh, because you don’t understand why this matters. Because God’s mercy depends so much on your perspective. Let me try to explain.

So many things are a matter of perspective. How many own a cell phone? If you’re like me, you get upset when your call is dropped, when your phone cuts in and out and you can’t hear someone. Or when your significant other goes out and forgets to bring their cell phone, and you can’t reach them. Of course, if we stop to think about it, most of us should be able to remember the days when all phones were attached to cords in your house, and that since not everyone had an answering machine or voice mail, you couldn’t take for granted that you would reach someone when you called them. And really, it’s only been about 125 years since the phone was invented. Before that, you could only send a telegraph or a letter to communicate.

Or what about cooking? Ever get upset at the uneven heating of food in your microwave? Don’t forget that only 20 years ago, 25% of homes owned a microwave. Before that? Everything was done on a stove. And before that? Fire & wood.

I saw a comedian recently on the Tonight Show who was making a similar point as he reflected on a recent flight, and how even though they had just introduced high speed internet on the plane, as soon as it broke down, the guy next to him started complaining. People so easily forget that you are able to fly through the air, to get to California from New York in 5 hours when it used to take days to drive cross country.

It’s all a matter of perspective. And the more we have access to, the more we begin to believe that the world owes us, that we deserve all that is out there, that maybe even God owes us. The word that sums it up best is entitlement. How quickly gratitude turns into entitlement. As any parent or grandparent knows, it’s getting harder and harder to give young people perspective. To someone whose internet is taking long to load a page, or whose cell phone drops calls while they’re driving, how do you help them understand that 20 years ago, most people would not have been able to tell you what the internet was, and most people were still dialing rotary phones and hoping that the other person had an answering machine if they weren’t home. We are in many ways an entitled people, and every generation feels more and more entitled, like the world owes them the very best. I believe that so much of our understanding of ourselves, God, and this world is all a matter of perspective, of where you are standing.

Because I believe this transfers over to God for many people. Many of us, because of how pervasive this entitlement mindset is, believe that God is here to serve us, to give us our best life now, to bless us and give us our heart’s desire. And so, at the first hint of injustice, unfairness, dreams dashed and hopes deferred, many of us raise our fists at the sky and say “Why, God?” “Why won’t my car work?” “Why can’t I find a girlfriend?” How hard it must be for God to communicate to an entitled people in order to convince them of what they really deserve.