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But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God\u2019s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.\xa0 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

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We are chosen by God the King to be his priests.\xa0 That\u2019s not just a calling for your pastors: it\u2019s yours too.\xa0 I think that\u2019s part of what our devotion yesterday was getting at.\xa0 Israel was set as a city on a hill to be visible to the nations.\xa0 And not just visible, but to be a nation of priests among the nations that constantly pointed to their God.\xa0 And, as the statements on judgement that we heard from Deuteronomy suggested: even when Israel was unfaithful, their plight in exile would still stand as a testament to the Lord.

Today in the Christian church, we still stand as a priests among the nations when we are faithful to that calling.\xa0 But even when we are unfaithful, we still testify to the Lord.\xa0 How? \xa0Well, not primarily by facing judgement anymore, but rather by receiving God\u2019s mercy in Christ.\xa0

It was mentioned yesterday, but many are disillusioned with the church these days.\xa0 It\u2019s hard to find good stories in the news or on social media.\xa0 Not because they aren\u2019t there, mind you, but because that\u2019s not what tends to go viral.\xa0 All the same, it colours our impression.\xa0

But what causes us to be disillusioned, I think, is less about the brokenness of the church and more about our expectations of what the church should be.\xa0 We expect it should be an approximation of Jesus Himself and His Kingdom come.\xa0 But, rarely does the church measure up to those high ideals of perfection.\xa0 Nor can it, actually, on this side of eternity.\xa0 \xa0\xa0

The reason is that the church is a gathering of recovering sinners who can gather, not because they\u2019ve mended all their ways, but because they have received mercy.\xa0 And the sure promise of the Bible is that we will continue to sin and find ourselves in need of mercy until Christ comes again.\xa0 Amen: Come Lord Jesus, Come.\xa0\xa0

But we have received mercy.\xa0 We do receive it.\xa0 Every time.\xa0 Christ forgives us again, and again.\xa0 That the church should continue to be loved by God anyway when the whole society calls out \u201cCrucify\u201d or \u201cCancel,\u201d well that too is a testament to the overwhelming unconditional love and compassion of our God.\xa0

And, having received mercy: the church does respond.\xa0 We don\u2019t do it perfectly, but we do minister as priests to one another when we have compassion on, pray for, or forgive one another.\xa0 We do minister as priests to our neighbours when we give them the grace of borrowing our tools or help them with a project.\xa0 We do minister as priests when we seek God\u2019s glory in our work through good governance, sound accounting, excellent care, wise interventions, well-built and wired buildings, and faithful service.\xa0

Through God\u2019s grace and mercy to us in Christ, the church is not in the end a bad news story about sin.\xa0 It is a story about a people who have received mercy and have been transformed by it to become those priests who transform the communities in which they live and the places where the work, volunteer, and study.\xa0 So you priests: you are seen, known, loved, and forgiven\u2014let the light of Christ\u2019s transforming mercy shine through you today!

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