God is certainly persistent. God never gives up on anyone, no matter who they are and what they have done. God keeps pursuing us, reaching out to us, drawing us back, leading us home. God is, in the words of Francis Thompson, ‘The Hound of Heaven.’
Why does God pursue us so persistently? Because God is merciful. The heart of the Lord is mercy. The gospels, especially the Gospel of Luke are full of stories about the mercy of God. Perhaps the best known is the story of the prodigal. The word prodigal can mean two things. It can mean wayward and it can mean lavish. The love of the father for his wayward son was lavish in the extreme. It was a love that was expressed in and through tender mercy.
One of the plays I studied in secondary school was ‘The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare. For some reason the words I find easiest to remember in that play are those uttered by Portia to Shylock the merchant intent on his pound of flesh:
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest.”
The quality of God’s mercy is never strained. It is never measured, never weighed on a balance. Because of God’s unlimited mercy we are forgiven when we fail, followed when we stray and found when we are lost. It is the mercy of God that turns our feelings of guilt into feelings of peace.
Many of us have inherited a judgemental and critical God, a God who is demanding and difficult to please, a God who exacts justice. Let’s be clear. This is not the God of Jesus. This is not the Abba Jesus spoke so affectionately and intimately about. Like Shylock we humans may want others to pay for their wrong doing, but let us not project this on to God. God is way beyond our desire for vengeance. God is mercy, pure and simple. For each and every one of us who are constantly failing and falling, God’s unlimited mercy will have the last word, the final say. In death we will fall into an ocean of mercy.