Overflowing Mercy (14th Pentecost / Proper 19C)
- Guillermo Arboleda
- Sep 13
- 4 min read
A sermon by the Rev. Guillermo A. Arboleda, written for and delivered at All Saints' Episcopal Church, Tybee Island, GA, on Sunday, September 14, 2025, which is the 14th Sunday after Pentecost (RCL Proper 19, Year C).
Primary Bible Reading(s)
1 Timothy 1:12-17 (NRSVue)
12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. 16 But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience as an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Overflowing Mercy
By the Rev. Guillermo A. Arboleda, Program Manager for New Starts, ELCA
This week’s readings are very timely. The throughline between them all is God’s mercy. Over and over again, these stories point to God forgiving people when they do wrong. They are all about sinners not getting what they deserve, about God being kinder to us than we deserve.
This is a timeless message, of course, but it’s especially timely for us. We live in a time of rising political violence, in which elected officials and prominent political figures have been murdered or nearly murdered in Utah, Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. People are quick to turn their rhetorical enemies into victims of violence. We live in a time with senseless school shootings, in which children and young adults are injured and killed far too often. There have been over 100 K-12 school shootings in 2025 alone. Rather than pursue the difficult work of conflict mediation and healing, we are surrounded by violence.
It goes without saying that violent murders are wrong. But specifically, murders are wrong because they are contrary to God’s mercy. No matter what the victim has done, murder is wrong because it deprives that person of the opportunity for forgiveness and repentance.
In the first half of Paul’s life, it would have been easy for us Christians to write him off as a sinner. He cursed and persecuted the church. Acts tells us that Paul supported the mob that lynched Stephen, the first martyr. Paul arrested, beat, and tortured Christians to try to quash the early movement. He called himself “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” (1 Timothy 1:13). He had admitted that he was ignorant. Paul acknowledged that the only thing that turned him around was the “overflow[ing]” grace, love, and faithfulness of Jesus Christ for him (1:14).
If Paul’s enemies in the church had their way, they might have killed him to stop his violent behavior. They might have been morally or philosophically justified in doing so. Harming one person to prevent harm for dozens or hundreds seems worth it, right? But spiritually, they underestimated God’s mercy. They didn’t know that Paul, a beloved child of God, still had the capacity to turn around and make amends for the great wrongs he committed.
Paul’s conversion to Jesus is such an old story in Christian history that we sometimes forget just how sensational it is. Of all the people in the ancient Roman Empire, God chose this hateful, violent man to become an ambassador for Christ’s peace. God chose the most zealous Pharisee to be the apostle to non-Jewish people and leader of the movement for an inclusive church in his era. That kind of mercy is insane and foolish behavior. But it’s exactly how God treats us, and it’s exactly how God calls us to treat one another.
The impulse to exterminate the opposition leads us down the path of rampant shootings and political violence. We turn to violence when we believe that we are righteous and our enemies are evil and beyond redemption. That is what led Paul and the Pharisees to attack the early Christians. It’s what led Pharaoh to persecute the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. It’s what drives so much of the hateful words and actions that consume American politics and society.
We obviously need to make moral judgments and call out evil behavior when we see it. But evil actions don’t make people evil. God created everybody in the Image of God and calls us good. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. And no one is too far gone. Nobody is outside the reach of God’s saving grace. God still loves our enemies. They are simply not that bad.
And just like “they” are not pure villains, “we” are not pure heroes. No one is greater than sin. No one is above needing forgiveness. It is so easy to forget that we are all sinners in need of mercy. It’s so easy to pass judgment on others for their behavior, to point the finger at the speck in someone else’s eye instead of removing the log from our own eyes (Matthew 7:3-5). Instead, Jesus invites us to welcome sinners and make space for people to change. Just as Jesus displayed “the utmost patience” in Paul, he has patience and mercy for us (1 Timothy 1:16). He wants to save us. Our job is simply to be humble enough to let that mercy in. And if we see the power of God’s mercy to change our own lives, we might be able to extend that mercy when someone else acts foolish or says something hateful or does something harmful. We’ve been there too.
Let us pray: Dear Jesus, you came to us because you love us and want to save us from our sin. In St. Paul, you gave us an example of a despicable person who accepted your overflowing mercy and love. Pour out the same mercy on us, and may it overflow into this church, our families, friends, and neighbors, and onto this world that you love. In the Name of the Triune God, we pray. Amen.
Comments