Can I have that recipe?

Anyone who has dabbled in baking knows how important the proper measure of ingredients is both for taste and texture. Read the ingredients carefully and if you're me, read them more than once. Be sure you're putting in a half cup of sugar and not salt; be sure it's one tablespoon of cinnamon and not two; don't over measure the amount of flour or yeast. But, after a number of tries and experience, you may just know instinctively, "a little salt, about two tablespoons of sugar, approximately two cups of flour." Grandma's recepies are rarely exact but the results are unable to be copied and the taste is what everyone salivates over.

In this Second week of Lent today's passage from Luke speaks of proper measures. It's not a recipe for ancient Jewish soup but rather about the fair measure of justice and mercy. Jesus speaks of compassion, pardon, generosity, a non-judgemental attitude and the fact that, "The measure you measure with will be measured back to you." These are Jesus' ingredients for moral living and ethical behavior.

We say that God is both justice and mercy. True, but our sense of justice and mercy have limits: "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." The punishment doled out should be proportionate to the offense; no more, no less. Today's passage nearly sounds the same - "Do not judge and you will not be judged; pardon and you will be pardoned." Well, that sounds fair to me and challenging to boot. If I want to be treated with mercy and pardoned for my sin, then I had better offer pardon and mercy to my brothers and sisters. That's fair and just. An eye for an eye. So, what's the problem? With God, there are no limits and we should never place limits upon him.

Jesus begins his list with, "Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate." Now, my Father was a good man. He was fair in his business dealings and people respected him. But, he had his limits and so do we. Our Lord is obviously speaking about our heavenly Father; his Father and ours. If that Father is compassionate without limit, as we see Jesus behaving in his public ministry, then we too are called to love and forgive without limit.

Whoa! Wait a minute, I'm not God so how can I love or be compassionate as God? That's right, none of us are God, nor anywhere close to him. But, we are created "in his image and likeness." As children carry the genes of their parents along with certain physical traits, so too do we have a heart and mind capable of greatness. We limit ourselves out of fear, looking too religious to those around us, we have a poor self image, we're lazy, proud, selfish. But, it is possible for us to always love more than we do; extend compassion to more people other than our friends and family; to pardon our detractors and at least, as C.S. Lewis states, know that "I have forgiven my brother when I can at least wish him no harm."

Although we obviously cannot be God, we can be like him. Jesus would never ask the impossible of us but he is inviting us to stretch ourselves beyond our zone of comfort and to go beyond our hurt feelings to a higher level of morality; to swallow our pride and eat a little humble pie now and then. That, at least, is to be, "compassionate as your Father is compassionate."

Yet, it still sounds as if there are limits: "The measure you measure with will be measured back to you." Notice the word Jesus uses is, You. Ah, there is justice. Yet, if we bookend this passage and remember its beginning, ". . . as your Father is compassionate." Bingo!

If we measure without limit as God does, then we will be worthy of a love greater than ours - that of God himself. But, in the end, we determine our own fate. Our divinely given power of free choice, our independence, is that ability we have to "measure" according to me or to measure according to God as our Father.

So, which recipe will it be? I think I'd rather be covered in flour head to toe (imagine that) than be concerned about getting myself too dirty and at the end looking like I never entered the kitchen.