There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy (ELW 588, focus on verses 1 and 2)
1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
like the wideness of the sea;
there’s a kindness in God’s justice
which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth’s sorrows
are more felt than up in heav’n.
There is no place where earth’s failings
have such kindly judgment giv’n.
2 There is welcome for the sinner,
and a promised grace made good;
there is mercy with the Savior;
there is healing in his blood.
There is grace enough for thousands
of new worlds as great as this;
there is room for fresh creations
in that upper home of bliss.
3 For the love of God is broader
than the measures of the mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
But we make this love too narrow
by false limits of our own;
and we magnify its strictness
with a zeal God will not own.
4 ‘Tis not all we owe to Jesus;
it is something more than all:
greater good because of evil,
larger mercy through the fall.
Make our love, O God, more faithful;
let us take you at your word,
and our lives will be thanksgiving
for the goodness of the Lord.
Devotion
This past week’s scripture readings have a common theme—God’s grace and mercy have a reach far greater than we could ever imagine! What a fitting hymn, then, is Frederick W. Farber’s “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.” Although the tunes for this hymn in Evangelical Lutheran Worship are beautiful, it can also be sung to the more familiar tunes of “Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service” (ELW 712) or “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (ELW 742). Because of God’s mercy, nothing gets lost, and no one falls through the cracks. In a world that, in so many ways, tells us that we don’t matter, don’t measure up, and are not “essential,” God begs to differ. In God’s merciful acts for all creation, every living creature is provided for, loved, and treasured.
Prayer
We thank you, loving God, as we recognize just how wide your mercy is and how deep your care is for all your creation. Amen.