“There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy,” ELW 587, 588; and LBW 290
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 our 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 the 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
Father Faber sings of a merciful road built by God that is all-encompassing for us poor sinners. It may be tempting to let ourselves be tossed about on an ocean of kind thoughts and warm, forgiving feelings in the opening lines of these verses.
Yet, John 14 reminds us of Jesus’ teaching that his road is a one-lane, one-way superhighway to that extraordinary place with our God. Yes, God shows unending mercy to sinners. And tucked away in this hymn we are reminded of the blood that has secured this wonderful mercy for us.
We have seen the true and wide mercy of God in his Son. As the disciples ask for directions to the Father in John 14, Jesus wastes no time telling them that he is the one, true, wide way.
Prayer
Lord, you show us the way of mercy. May we share that grace-filled way far and wide, always seeking to reconcile the distance between spirits, hearts and minds. Amen.