‘TIS MERCY ALL:
The Power of Mercy in a Polarised World
By Natalie Williams
SPCK. 178 pages. £11.99
ISBN 978 0 281 089 185
Natalie Williams, CEO of Jubilee Plus, has written books on how the church can be more engaged with working-class people and the poor. Now, in this book, Williams takes a deep dive into the theme of God’s mercy and how it works out in the lives of those who have been touched by that mercy.
The book is divided into four sections. Section 1 explores what the mercy of God is. Section 2 wrestles with how we can rely on God’s mercy in the light of the other truths that we know about God. Williams helpfully shows that all the attributes of God, even those that we think might conflict with mercy – like justice – actually leave space for mercy. Section 3 reflects on how the mercy of God can reframe our thought world and reshape our attitudes. Section 4 provides many practical suggestions on how we can display mercy in everyday life.
This book is Biblical, honest, human and practical. The author says that: ‘If your church ran a course on how to be judgmental, I would not need to attend. It comes naturally to me!’ So, she is honest about the fact that mercy does not come naturally to her but is something she needs to work at. And she displays mercy by not tearing a strip off her readers for being unmerciful and by being honest about the ways that she struggles to be a merciful person. Providing these little pictures of her own struggles eventually turns into a mirror in which we see our own failure to think, act and speak mercifully.
We live in a highly polarised society in which our words can often have a jagged edge and our actions can be laced with cynicism and cruelty. We would all do well to enlist in a course to be more merciful. Williams has provided some excellent raw materials for readers to be tenderized by the mercy of God, and have their minds refashioned and their actions reshaped by that mercy.
A couple of references to contemporary prophecy and the miraculous might not sit well with all en readers, but these do not detract from the immense value of this timely book. Experiencing the mercy of God is life transforming and displaying that mercy in our world can be an excellent expression of the gospel in action. The story Williams tells in the Introduction, of a couple who forgave the lorry driver who killed their daughter, is an example of what showing mercy looks like. The world would be different if such mercy were not so rare a commodity.
‘Loving mercy requires recalibrating our hearts. We have deep work to do.’
