When I was growing up as a child, my mother used to take me regularly to the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy on festival days on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month to worship and to make the sacrificial offerings to Kuan Yin. We burnt jossticks, poured some rice wine and placed meat and fruits before the altar to feast the goddess. That would also mean chicken on the table for the family meal on those days. I was impressed with the Kuan Yin idol which was the centerpiece of the Temple as we entered. The Goddess of Mercy continues to be a symbol of serenity and peace. It is picture of mercy and a source of comfort to worshippers.

When we enter the church and in particular the Catholic Church we see hanging before us the Suffering Christ on the Cross. We are reminded of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and our sinfulness. We are brought face to face with the conflicts that Jesus faced with the religious and political authorities of His day which resulted in His death by Crucifixion. The word SIN strikes us. How merciless they were who put Jesus on the Cross. It is a scene of mercilessness and a cause of sorrow to worshippers.

Today we recall the tragic day of 9/11 September 11 four years ago when the planes with suicide bombers mercilessly stabbed the World Trade Centre and bringing death to all the passengers in the planes and the people in the building. The majestic structures came crashing to the ground. Then the merciful people came to rescue. The heroic efforts of the firefighters and rescue squads of doctors and nurses became the emblems of mercy in the midst of the pain and suffering humanity. These firefighters were running toward the World Trade Center as many were rushing out. Their courage, their valor, their sense of duty propelled them to get into that building, not caring for their lives, but for the lives of those whom they were intent on saving. Unfortunately, 400 lives were lost in the process of this noble effort. In rendering their acts of mercy they made the supreme sacrifice.

Today on September 11, 2005 we see the drowning of the city of New Orleans – City of Destruction, Devastation, Despair, Disappointment, Disgust and Death in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The Superpower that can wage war halfway across the world cannot reach the city and the Gulf Coast in its own country on a mission of mercy to save the poor and dying from hunger and sickness as they were cramped in their flooded homes, hospitals, Convention Center and the Superdome without water and food and medicine. It is a story not of merciful heroes but of merciless villains. It is a sad tale not only about the destruction that the hurricane brought to the people and the city but the lack of preparation, preparedness and participation to care for the poor victims who have no means to be evacuated from the city before and had to wait days without basic necessities after the hurricane struck. Because they were mainly poor and black they were left behind. More lives were drowned consequently. Others became instant refugees uprooted from their home and friends and without money or employment. What a merciless situation it was and still is.

Can you imagine the people of New Orleans who have no homes to return to for they have been either destroyed by the winds or submerged by the waters in a city which stands below sea level. All that they have is what they have on and able to carry with their own bare two hands. I can personally empathize with that since my home was literally razed to the ground when it was torched by the retreating British forces before the advancing Japanese Army in World War II in Kampar. I was only twelve years then and had no home to return to.

We live in a fragile and a fragmented world. We called to be merciful to bind up the wounds of the people and bring together the broken community. That is why we need to hear afresh Jesus’ call: Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

The Beatitudes followed by the Sermon on the Mount is the roadmap to practical Christian living – the Christ-like life. The Beatitudes themselves has two components. One which is the be-attitude – the attitudes that we need to develop in living. It is to be poor in spirit, mournful of our sins, purity in our hearts. It is the state of our being or attitude. The other dimension is that of action – reaching out for righteousness, striving for peace and doing works of mercy.

We know how Christ has shown mercy, compassion and loving kindness throughout his ministry and especially towards the poor, the sick, the lonely and the oppressed. Jesus, of course, embodied the spirit of mercy. He invited prostitutes and supped with tax collectors and included them into His community of love. He befriended the lonely, the ostracized, the destitute, and the despised. How merciful He was.

Jesus knew his Scripture well:

Proverbs 14:21 “Happy is he who is kind to the poor.”

Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Psalm 103 “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

Jesus Himself gave instructions about the requirements of Christian living.

Matthew 9:13 “Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, you have neglected the weightier parts of the law, justice and mercy and faith, these you have done, without neglecting the others.

There are many occasions when Jesus and His followers are merciful and gave lessons of showing mercy which are described by synonymous words like compassion and kindness towards people. The best examples are that of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, and the Adulterous Woman.

The examples of Christian living by the followers of Jesus from the very beginning brought about the growth of the Christian Church. Describing the first century Christians to the Emperor Hadrian, a historian wrote:

“They love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If they have something, they give freely to the man who has nothing; if they see a stranger, they take him home, and are happy as though he were a real brother. They don't consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit, in God.”

We need to learn these lessons in history of our Christian tradition well which will help us to recover this dimension of mercy and walk our talk and witness that our belief and our being as Christian must show forth in merciful living in the contemporary world.

The Greek word translated into English as mercy implies action. Mercy is more than a feeling. It is no mere sentimentality. It is not just an emotional wave. It requires a response to human need and to give what they have in service to others.

Mercy is translated into compassion”. Compassion itself means to “suffer with”. Suffering with others means to enter into their experiences and to share their pain and sorrow.

In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the word mercy is “chesed,” literally means "to get inside someone's skin, to look at where they view life from, to feel what they are experiencing, to think what they are thinking about and then to move and act on behalf of the one who is hurting.”

The mercy of God is borderless even crossing the border between friend and foe by loving even our enemies. On the Cross Jesus cried out to God “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Last August the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. One of the TV commentaries showed two young men returning to trace their steps on the Death Railway which their fathers walked. This Death Railway linking Thailand and Burma through dense jungle was built by the Japanese Army using prisoners of war as slave labour. It was dramatized in the movie “Bridge of the River Kwai.” In my youth I saw these British, Australian and New Zealander prisoners traveling up in goods wagon from Singapore up north to Thailand to build this railway.

Last night CNA showed a documentary on Remember Syonan-to (Japanese name for Singapore) depicted one Eurasian POW who survived the Death Railway too. Mr Grosse shared his observations of the agony and tragedy associated with the Death Railway.

Ernest Gordon, a British Army officer was also a POW. He survived the ordeal and subsequently became Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University. He has written a biographical account of that period: To End All Wars.

Gordon narrated how each day he worked with other POW in the low-lying swampland. If a prisoner appeared to lag, a Japanese guard would beat him to death or decapitate him. Many more men simply dropped dead from exhaustion, malnutrition, and disease. Ultimately, 80,000 prisoners died.

For most of the war, the prison camp had served as a laboratory of the survival of the fittest, every man for himself. They lived like animals, and for a long time hatred toward their captors was the main motivation to stay alive.

Gordon, like many others, could feel himself gradually wasting away from a combination of beriberi, worms, malaria, dysentery, typhoid, and diphtheria. Paralyzed and unable to eat, he asked to be laid in the Death House. That's where the sick were sent to die by their fellow prisoners amid filth and flies.

But something occurred in the prison camp, something that Gordon called the "miracle on the River Kwai." Amid the brutality and despair, some people began to exhibit another side of the human heart. One event in particular shook the prisoners. A Japanese guard discovered that a shovel was missing. When no one confessed to the theft, he screamed, "All die! All die!" and raised his rifle to fire at the first man in the line. At that instant an enlisted man stepped forward and said, "I did it."

Enraged, the guard lifted his weapon high in the air and brought the rifle butt down on the soldier's skull, killing him. That evening, when tools were inventoried again, the work crew discovered a mistake had been made: No shovel was missing.

One of the prisoners remembered the verse; "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Attitudes in the camp began to shift. With no prompting, prisoners began looking out for each other rather than themselves.

Gordon sensed the change in a very personal way as two fellow Scotsmen, both followers of Jesus Christ, came by each day to the death house and cared for him. They dressed the ulcers on his legs and massaging the atrophied muscles. He gradually put on weight and, to his amazement, regained partial use of his legs. Through these men he was drawn into a community of Christians in the camp. By default, because he had studied some philosophy, he became an unofficial camp chaplain, even though he wasn't yet a believer.

A real Christian community began to form. They called it the "church without walls." It was formed around faith in the mercy and love of God and was expressed in acts of mercy and kindness toward others, even their enemies.

Gordon's book describes a transformation of this group of men within the camp so complete that when liberation finally came, they even treated their sadistic guards with mercy rather than revenge.

Phillip Yancey theologizing over the book said about the creation of an alternate community, a tiny settlement of the kingdom of God taking root in the least likely soil. They clung to the desperate hope that their life would not end in a jungle prison but would resume, after liberation, back in Scotland or London or wherever they called home. But, even if it did not, they would endeavor to build a community of faith and compassion in the days they had left. God's mercy, shared sacrificially with each other, transformed a violent and sadistic world into a place where the light of Christ shone.

Recently we mourn the merciless murder of Brother Roger of Taize. At the funeral Brother Alois, the new prior of Taizé, who opened the celebration eulogized:

"Brother Roger opened a road and led us on that road with exceptional energy and courage. Some intimate convictions led him to go forward tirelessly on that road. Allow me to mention just two of these convictions. Often Brother Roger repeated these words: 'God is united to every human being without exception.' This confidence carried and will carry the ecumenical vocation of our little community. With the whole Church we want to believe this reality and to do everything to express it with our life. Brother Roger had all human beings in his heart, from every nation, in particular young people and children. We want to continue in his steps. And the other conviction: Brother Roger constantly returned to that Gospel value which is kind-heartedness. It is not an empty word, but a force able to transform the world, because, through it, God is at work. In the face of evil, kind-heartedness is a vulnerable reality. But the life which Brother Roger gave is a pledge that God's peace will have the last word for each person on our earth.

Twelve thousand came together to celebrate at his funeral in Taize, France. Cardinal Kaspar from the Vatican Council for the Promotion of Unity Among Christians and President of the Federal Republic of Germany came especially for the occasion.

In the past few days we saw the scenes of the suffering people and those who died from the havoc caused by the Hurricane Katrina and the inefficiency of the political and bureaucratic leadership which took days to arrive to help to the victims. I watched a video of a local official responsible for the management of an area in the Gulf Coast. You can googled his name Aaron Broussard. He said how they were being abandoned by the leaders and the bureaucracy. Towards the end of the interview over national television, he broke down sobbing unashamedly when he shared this incident:

"The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything, His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, 'Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?' And he said, 'Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday.' And she drowned Friday night. And she drowned Friday night. "Nobody's coming to get us," he said through his tears. “For God’s sake. Just shut up and send us somebody.”

There are aching hearts in our situation here crying out for somebody to help them today. Blessed are the merciful. Just as God's mercy makes human life meaningful and salvation possible, so our mercy toward each other creates a little colony of heaven in this disturbed, disjointed and disordered world.

This Beatitude teaches us: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy should not be interpreted to say that we can earn the mercy of God. The mercy of God is given freely to us in that while we are yet sinners God loves us and grant us mercy even though we don’t deserve it. Those who receive or obtain mercy are called upon to be merciful. When you experience God’s mercy we are to be merciful to our neighbours. In particular I want to challenge you to be merciful to those of the gay and lesbian community who remain closetted In touching their lives and in setting an example of what a gay Christian lifestyle is you will liberate them from their misery. Be merciful as you have already received mercy in being able to come out and worship here in FCC on Sunday. This is what Christ-like living is all about. We pray that we can be merciful and render deeds of mercy to all God’s people in all situations all the time.