100 Days of Unmerciful Lawlessness

“Lord, have mercy” – Kyrie Eleison

Today marks 100 days since Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s memorable sermon at the Washington National Cathedral delivered on January 21. What made it so remarkable was its surprising conclusion directed squarely at the 47^th President sitting in the front pew. It was a biblically sound, earnest and gentle moral plea to show mercy to frightened citizens and sojourners anticipating the wrath of a hostile regime.

And yesterday marked 101 days since the swift and devastating blitzkrieg on democracy and the rule of law by the MAGA machine under the administration of a self proclaimed Monarch along with the world’s richest chainsaw wielding oligarch. It was the most abnormal, merciless and lawless 100 day salvo to burst upon the American populace in the history of the republic.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus was often heard to say, “He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” It was an invitation to active listening and a call to respond positively to his messages and teachings about the abundant life to be lived under the reign of God, a beloved community of redeemed saints working together for the common good of all creation. But it was also an acknowledgment on Jesus’ part that not everyone is receptive to the invitation and teachings being given. Not everyone has the willingness to hear the one who speaks truth and is the embodiment of God’s veracity.

That unwillingness to hear and respond to God’s invitation and guidance to live the good life is a repeating theme of Old Testament scripture. Over and over again we see Yahweh raising up Prophets to deliver the life giving message to a stiff-necked and errant covenant people whose ears are not attuned to teachings and commands of their omnipotent, just and yet merciful God. Throughout the six year history of this Creation Justice blog we have time and time again highlighted the anchoring verse from the book of the Prophet Micah to define the formula for living the “good life” in covenant relationship with God.

Micah 6:8 is often referred to as the “Micah Mandate,” which outlines the key characteristics of God’s desire for his people to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with him. The bookends to the Micah 6:8 verse are justice and humility. And sandwiched between them is the call to love what in many Bible versions is referred to as kindness, but in others is also called mercy. The Hebrew word for mercy (at least one of its words) is hesed, a word that is bigger and more encompassing than any single English word can define.

Hesed is in fact a word that defines the very nature of God. In Exodus God promises to reveal himself to Moses:
“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation”– Exodus 34:6-7

God is the very essence of “steadfast love and faithfulness,” the epitome of what we call mercy.

In the New Testament gospel according to John we see the evangelist combining the two characteristics of God’s character in Exodus 34 “steadfast love and faithfulness” and translating them into their Greek equivalent of “grace and truth.” “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth,” John 1:14.

If ever there was a fall from grace and truth and an abandonment from the call to love mercy (steadfast love and faithfulness), it has been the debacle in governance perpetrated by this rogue administration over the past 100 days in office. The seed of mercy has fallen on hard, dry ground. The plea for compassion has fallen on deaf ears. In defiance of all that is just, merciful and humble, the President and his compliant and complicit cohorts have willfully and strategically thrown democracy and the Constitution that under girds it under the MAGA bus powered by the nefarious and polluting engine of Project 2025.

At the end of this 100 day onslaught of merciless destruction of democratic governance and willful defiance of the rule of law that costs citizens and sojourners livelihood, lives and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution, it behooves people of good will and good faith to take on the mantle of the Old and New Testament Prophets and speak truth to power. “Now is the time for all good men (people) to come to the aid of their country” must become more than a mere keyboarding exercise in typing skills. It must rather be a clarion call to muster up the courage to confront the injustice, cruelty and hubris that is the polar opposite of Micah’s Mandate and Jesus’ exemplary life and lessons.

For any who wish to take a closer look at the first 100 days through the eyes of legal scholars, I commend you to an April 28, 2025 Opinion Guest Essay from the New York Times, The ‘Recklessness Itself Sends a Message’: 35 Legal Experts Assess Trump’s Return. I leave you with one excerpt:

“More important than any specific example of unconstitutional conduct is the overall pattern. The depth and breadth of this administration’s disregard for civil liberties, political pluralism, the separation of powers and legal constraints of all kinds mark it as an authoritarian regime. That is the crucial thing to see.”
— David Pozen, professor, Columbia Law School

8The Lord is gracious and compassionate;
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
9The Lord is good to all,
And His mercies are over all His works.
10All Your works will give thanks to You, Lord,
And Your godly ones will bless You.

– Psalm 145:8-10