Letter from Dave and Sue Thomas in Mexico
February 1, 2009
First things first
Dear Friends,
You may be aware that the second half of Micah 6:8 is the general theme for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) throughout 2009. Coincidentally, the pastor of the church we attend here in Cuernavaca preached on this same text on the first Sunday of the new year. And his sermon made me think, “What if we reversed the order of this well-known passage and considered it from a sequential perspective?” What if the text admonished us to “walk humbly with our God, love mercy, and do justice?” In that order? Put into this sequence, humility leads to mercy, and the love of mercy leads us to seek and do justice. First things first.
Walking humbly with God is something that people in México do naturally. In Spanish, people with few resources are often referred to as los humildes (“humble ones”), and they are definitely the majority in this part of the world. Humility comes when we acknowledge that we have nothing except what God has given us. Humility is a conscious decision to take a step toward God, admitting that we can do nothing apart from God. Maybe this is one of many areas in which we can learn something from our Mexican brothers and sisters in Christ.
Loving mercy is a distinctly Christian way of life, grounded in the compassion that Jesus demonstrated for us. Compassion is not pity, and mercy doesn’t play favorites. God’s mercy is for everyone, regardless of their background or social status. Our Mexican partners are engaged in many different ministries of mercy, such as hospitals and medical clinics, schools, disaster relief, and much more. From evangelistic outreach to indigenous people in Oaxaca to providing meals for deported migrants on the U.S./Mexico border, we have come alongside our partners to live out God’s mercy in dozens of ways. Throughout México, our mission personnel are largely involved in education, both for those whose access to schools and seminaries is limited and for visiting U.S. mission delegations.
Only when we learn to walk humbly with God, and to love mercy, will we be able to act justly in the way that Jesus Christ showed us—from a position of humility and compassion for people who have become victims of injustice. People like those who were unjustly imprisoned following the Acteal massacre in 1997 in the state of Chiapas. People like the Presbyterian families in villages in southern Mexico who are still being persecuted, in 2009, for their refusal to participate in what they consider to be “pagan” festivals. People like the hundreds of murdered women in Ciudad Juárez, on the Mexico/U.S. border.
What is justice? At its simplest level, it is seeing what is wrong and trying to make it right. Doing justice is at the very core of our faith, but we must first humble ourselves and act mercifully. Doing justice without humility is egotism. Doing justice without mercy is impossible.
As we work in partnership with the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico, we must continually seek to walk humbly with our God by putting our own motives aside, love mercy by following Christ’s model of compassion, and do justice by seeing what is wrong and trying to make it right.
Prayer
Walk with us, God, as we humble ourselves before you. Let the love of mercy flow from our humility and be expressed in acts of justice—not something that we do on our own for our own motives, but something that you do through us for your holy purpose. Amen.
Dave Thomas
The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 275
