By John Gocke

It is close to Christmas, and we have reminders all around us to have mercy on the less fortunate. Some of us give change to the Salvation Army (but not in front of Target stores), and some of us even provide a turkey to needy families. These acts of mercy are all good and provide a wonderful chance to teach youth to act with mercy. But can we go further?

A common story about Fiorello LaGuardia (the guy they named the airport after) shows us how a person can go beyond being merciful to being graceful. LaGuardia was the mayor of New York City during not only the Great Depression but also the worst days of World War II. Many people in New York City were endeared to him because he was such a hands-on leader. It is said that he rode with the firemen as they rushed to fight fires and that he accompanied the police as they raided the nightclubs where alcohol and drugs were sold. He loved young people and took whole orphanages to ball games.

One night he showed up at a night court in one of the poorest wards of New York. LaGuardia gave the judge the night off and sat in for him. Soon a weary, elderly woman was brought before him on charges that she had stolen a fifty-cent loaf of bread. “Your Honor,” she addressed LaGuardia. With quivering lips and tear-filled eyes, she admitted to the theft. But she added, “my daughter’s husband has deserted her, she is sick, and her children are crying because they have nothing to eat.”

Mayor LaGuardia paused. The office he swore to uphold required that he enforce the letter of the law, so he rose and said, “I have to punish you. The law makes no exception. The fine is ten dollars or ten days in jail.” But as he spoke, he reached into his pocket and pulled out ten dollars. “Here is the ten dollars for the fine,” he said. “And furthermore, I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”

The following day, the newspaper reported that a total of $47.50 was turned over to the grandmother to help her. The red-faced bakery owner who had brought the charge against her gave fifty cents of that amount. The mayor could have merely shown mercy and dismissed her fine and charges. Instead he delivered grace to the beaten woman and rescued her and her grandchildren.

How many times have we superficially read the story of Joseph and his abuse at the hands of his brothers who threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery? We can easily miss the difference between mercy and the grace he demonstrated. When Joseph became a powerful ruler in Egypt, the same brothers who did great harm to him were suddenly in his power to imprison and punish. It would have been ironic justice for Joseph to do any number of torments to them. He would have been incredibly merciful to just let them go with their lives. But instead (after scaring them) he brought all of them and their families to Egypt to live and escape the famine. He went beyond mercy and delivered them from their circumstances, because God took what was meant for evil and brought good out of it, just like Mayor LaGuardia.

Earlier this year, a close friend of mine received a phone call that his indigent father was dying in a hospital on the other side of the country. This news was a surprise to him, because he had never before met his father. The father had abandoned his wife and only child when the son was only a few years old and disappeared for over thirty years from all family and friends. The father’s mother had died a few years before, bitter over the son’s vanishing, and his aunt and uncle refused to heed the hospital’s call for a visit, saying, “He wasn’t worth it.”

The son decided it would be an act of mercy to fly out and see him before he expired. With a breathing tube down the father’s throat that inhibited all conversation and with the doctors saying he could go anytime, the son held his hand and told his father he was forgiven. Tears streamed from the eyes of the father, who looked much older than his sixty years and had deep wrinkles and a weathered body. He had never known forgiveness before.

In the days that followed, a miraculous recovery began, which the doctors could not explain. The man who had been given a medical death sentence days before was now walking around and desiring a discharge. Apparently God had granted him a little more time to live. The old man attributed it to the grace to live his life differently for whatever time he had left. The son got to talk to his father for the first time in his life. They now live five minutes apart.

I know the story very well, because that man is my father, and we are about to spend the first Christmas ever together.

Do not hesitate to offer grace instead of just mercy this holiday season.

John Gocke is a veteran of youth ministry, having worked in various churches in Southern California. John holds an MA in Theology from Point Loma Nazarene University and currently works on the staff of www.ileadyouth.com.

Other articles by John Gocke:
Eleven Signs of a Successful Youth Minister.
Dealing with sharing your office.
Christian Pirates?
Saying what you really think!
Cures for the Summertime Attendance Slump
Going Back in Time
The Epic Struggle Between Youth Pastors and Senior Pastors
You and Conan the Barbarian
A King Josiah-Kind of Christian
Fantasizing About Violence: Violent Video Games Promote Aggressive Behavior In Youth
Chico the Roach
Are you a Batman or Superman Christian?
Ten Skills They Don’t Teach You in Seminary
Teach your youth grace-not just mercy this Christmas
Five reasons you should encourage your youth to experience Christian music

Brought to you by your youth ministry colleagues at Cokesbury.

© 2004 The United Methodist Publishing House. This material may be reproduced for educational purposes only.

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