Pragmatic Grace -- Sunday sermon devotional -- 3

      It's no secret that "grace" is the primary message of today's evangelical church. It is certainly a message that has been received with many open arms and accompanying sighs of relief. This message of grace, rightly or wrongly, has made a good many Christians feel quite a bit better about themselves.
       But as I have said before, grace works. It does not stop at salvation by merely bringing us into the body of Christ, but it goes on to work in and through us into that body for its good and growth. Grace must be expressed in the church in ways that are profitable and practical. It must be used, not merely admired. When we use grace to bring about the betterment of others, we will find that everyone will benefit, for grace imparted is grace received, which, in turn, is grace empowered, something that is unstoppable.
     Our first task in making grace work it to embrace it fully, and, consequently, to live it out. Grace demands more than a passing interest or a warm feeling. Grace, because it is a gift of God, always pushes its way to the forefront of our lives. It touches everything we do and factors in to everything we feel. If we turn away from grace, try to ignore it or keep it in a special spiritual corner or our lives, we will find that we are powerless to deal with many of the negative forces that press in on us daily. Embracing grace is literally like giving a hug; we hold it close to our souls with feelings of joy and contentment. We know that it is good and precious because love has proven it to be valuable. Grace must be taken to heart. It must become our most prized possession.
      Like any thing or relationship that is worthwhile, we need to work to make it better. Our understanding of grace must be developed and deepened. Prayer and Bible study are two powerful tools we can use to familiarize ourselves with the ways of grace. Getting to know Christians who are or have been shining examples of gracious behaviour will teach us how to apply grace to everyday life at home and in the church. Anyone who receives grace will show their understanding of it by being gracious, and this is the way of life that truly makes a difference.
     Just as the grace we received from Christ, the saving grace of God, gave us many benefits, grace in our lives bestows benefits on others. The writer of Hebrews instructs us: "Therefore strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees...Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness...Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and by it, defiling many." (12:12-15) Gracious living requires hard work and dedication. It means persevering even when we are tired or worn out by something or even someone. While doing the work of grace, we must keep our eyes fixed on God, for if we are distracted by the chaos in which grace labours, it will be easy for us to become negative, bitter and discouraged. When that happens our good efforts are tainted with selfishness, turning a good thing into "trouble" for all concerned.
     In 2Tim. 2, the Apostle Paul reminds us to look to Jesus as our perfect example of a life of grace: "...be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." But he is not referring to "fuzzy-feeling" grace.  He is talking about the grace that shines through suffering, hard times and even rejection. Jesus suffered so that we might be saved by "grace through faith." Bringing the good news of salvation to others often includes times of suffering. Paul says we need to be as self-disciplined in our christian life as soldiers and athletes are in their pursuits. This requires constant attention and detailed vigilance. He says we need to be like a "hardworking farmer" who not only labors long and hard, but exhibits steady patience while waiting for his goals to be realized. Grace will not allow others to fail, even if that demands strenuous work.
     Grace that works, that looks after others, that cares about and encourages another person, is a hard and even messy business. But it is immeasurably worth it. Once again, Christ is our example -- "...who for the joy that was lay before him endured a cross..." Whenever we feel that we are done or even fed up with living and acting graciously, God gives us the strength to go on. He gives us "grace upon grace" that proves to be strong and resilient. This strong grace, acting through unconditional love, truly makes a difference in our lives, in the lives of others and in the church, who has been called, received, and commissioned by love without limits, with grace beyond measure.

http://www.covgrace.org/category/sermon-audio/  (sermons from Aug. 23 and Aug. 30)

By his mercies -- Common grace

    This summer it rained twice here in southern California. (It rained all day long in fact; it was very shocking.) Usually, we have no rain at all in the summer. The normal amount of rain is .12". This season we have had .37"!  But we are also experiencing drought here in California, so our unexpected rain has had very little impact on the overall situation. The philosophical question here is, "Why did it rain in S. CA during a summer in a drought?" Was God trying to tell us something or help us out? Was the rain just a freak natural event? Did a group of native Americans intone just the right incantation? Why does it rain and what does it mean?
     Yesterday I read an interesting passage of Scripture about rain -- one I had never noticed before. Jer. 14:22 says, "Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O Lord our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this."  False gods, superstitions, or even scientific procedures do not bring rain and neither is it a purely naturalistic phenomenon. Only God sends the rain. Jesus said, "[God the Father] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Mt. 5:45)
     Only two groups of people inhabit this world -- the redeemed and the unsaved -- yet God graciously gives his gifts of sustenance to both. The righteous are not more worthy because they have received the gift of salvation. The unrighteous are not undeserving because of their sinful state. The graces of rain and water and sun and food are freely given to all Creation by the Creator-God. This grace is called "common" or "universal" grace.
     Through common grace God provides for our everyday needs. God gives us food (Gen. 1:29) and water (Deut. 11:11,12), air to breathe (Acts 17:25) shelter (Jonah 4:6) and clothing Gen. 3:21). He does this because we are his children, whom he created. We are physical beings and have physical needs. The fact that God cares for these needs points to the fact that he is the Creator; for he would not abandon us or turn us loose in the world without giving us the assurance and the knowledge that we are provided for.
     God also provides these things for the animals he has made. Ps. 104:27 says, "These [animals] all look to you to give them food at the proper time," and Jesus said that the foxes have dens and birds have nests to live in. (Mt. 8:20) One of the most amazing aspects of creation is that each animal instinctively knows what to eat and where to live. This is God's common grace acting upon their lives, for he made each in a unique way and cares for them accordingly.
     Now, immediately we might think that God does not continually pour out his care upon creation, because so many people lack the things they need to survive. People and animals die everyday because they do not have enough food or water. It seems like God does not care for everyone or that he does not care in the same way. But we live in a fallen world; and its fallenness often goes at cross-purposes with his care. Evil governments, bad practices and the sinful human spirit have generated circumstance where God's common grace is not fully felt. This is why God calls us who know and follow him to be his instruments of grace and justice in this world. We are called to bring healing and hope wherever we can. We are also called to trust fully in his gracious love.
     Just as we should not turn our backs on saving grace, we should not cast aspersions on common grace. We do this in more ways than we care to admit. We may be wasteful and use more food and water than we really need. This is the sin of gluttony, which entails, in addition to eating and drinking to excess, excessive desires to do and have whatever we want. It is opposed to love, which gives and causes us to think of the needs of others before our own. God gives us what we need when we need it; he does not, however want us to be selfishly needy.
     Lately there's been a lot of chatter about "what foods to eat" in both Christian and secular arenas. While it is certainly dangerous to eat foods that are chemically over processed or to eat things like fat and sugar in excess, no food in and of itself should be considered bad or wrong to eat. Food is not intrinsically evil; it does not suffer from a fallen condition in and of itself. All food (plants and meat) has been given to us as a gift from our loving God. (Gen.1:29, 30, 9:3) We are called to receive every food with thanksgiving and moderation. (1Tim. 4:4, Phil. 4:5, KJV) Also, and this is very important in today's debate over food, we are not to judge what another person eats, or forbid people to eat certain foods. (Rom. 14:13-18, 1Tim.4:3)
     I am planning to write more on this topic of food and the Christian life, but for now I wish to make this one point -- what we eat is covered by God's common grace. No matter what point in history we may examine, or what foods have ever come into question, God gives food to us as his gift and he covers whatever negative elements it might have by his powerful grace. "Bad" things can and have happened because of food, but it is not because any food is "bad." God works in this world to keep the negative effects of sin in this world from exercising their full power. We live in him, we shall die in him.
     Everyday that we live, we need to thank God for his common grace that "preserves our life from destruction." While thanksgiving, balance and discernment are in order, we also need to know that we can live at peace because God cares for us, even in a fallen, confused and frightening world. As the Apostle John declared, "From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another." (Jn. 1:16)  

No perfect families

     Someone has remarked that there are no "perfect" families mentioned  in the Bible. When my husband and I heard this, we immediately tried to come up with evidence to the contrary. Jesus' family must have been ideal -- after all, Jesus himself was a most illustrious member of it, and he is the most perfect person who ever lived! But, upon close examination of the text, we learn that his family lived in the backwaters of Israel (Nazareth), his mom and dad mistakenly took off for home and left him in the temple, and his brothers and sisters thought he was crazy and tried to do an intervention to keep him from spouting all that nonsense about God being his real father!
     We also thought of Noah and Mrs. Noah -- they stuck together through difficult and improbable circumstances, and Mrs. Noah heroically put up with her husband's boat-building hobby for all those years, and in the middle of the desert, for heaven's sake... And I thought of Isaiah and his wife (referred to as "the prophetess") who agreed to the crazy names he came up with for their sons -- "Shear-Jashub" and "Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz." (They don't get any better in English: "a remnant will return," and "quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil.")
     The Bible stories are littered with tales of imperfect, less than ideal families. We read about incest, polygamy, arguing, murder (in the very first family!), adultery, wayward children, sickness and sorrow. It seems that every family takes up a cross of some kind; the greatest being in the family of our Lord, for as the elderly sage Simon prophesied to Mary: "a sword will pierce through your own soul also." At the foot of the cross, newly adopted into the disciple John's household, she felt the sword of separation from her firstborn son, who was, at the same time, in the dark agony of separation from God, his Father.
     But, like so many things in the Bible, the point of the stories of imperfect families is not their brokenness, but their restoration, not their sin, but their salvation, not their failures, but their redemption. For Adam and Eve, it is baby Seth, the beginning of a long unbroken line to Christ, for Noah and his family, a second chance at life in this world, for Abraham and Sarah, a child so long-awaited, loved and unexpected that his birth resounds with joyful laughter. In every story, something comes along to wipe away the sorrow, even if it is only the promise of eternal life to come. Even in the story of Jesus's earthly family this rings true -- our last picture of them is found in Acts chapter 1-- "Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers" are gathered with his followers in the upper room, waiting for the Holy Spirit, who, as Jesus said, "will abide with you forever."
     Perhaps the greatest lesson we can learn from the Biblical families is that the child of Bethlehem, when born in our hearts, is the one who brings peace and hope into our chaotic lives. When we become a member of his family, we are born into an eternal oneness with him and partake in the blessed position of sonship with him. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God!" -- John writes with joyful pride. He will never abandon us, or make an unwise decision about our lives, or think of anything else as being of greater importance than his relationship with us. As children of God, we have truly found a forever home.
      And during those dark times, when we look at our own families and despair, for many and complex reasons, we must bear in mind that "there is one God and Father of us all" who "works in all things for our good." He is, in his own and perfect way, working in each life, in each family, with an eternal purpose in mind, for a time when we will all be related and living in true relationship. There is no better description of Heaven than "home," because it illustrates to the fullest degree how God will take the broken, disconnected things of this life and make them perfectly whole. Until then the greatest work of love we can do for our families is to be redemptive in our relationships; to take the things that go wrong and, by the power of God's love and grace, turn them into something touched by goodness, set free to love and be loved.

Defining "grace"

     One of the most basic tenets of Christianity is that Christians are sinners who have been saved by God's grace. And it follows, that if Christians are saved by grace, they should not be controlled by any kind of law or legalism. The word "grace" is often used by Christians, but not everyone is able to fully articulate what it means. It is not so much that it is misunderstood, but that it is non-understood; rather like understanding the processes behind turning on a water faucet. We don't really know why or how the water comes out -- our grasp of the situation is quite weak. We are simply content that the water flows. We look at grace in much the same way. We feel happy that it happens and do not think deeply about it. Buy we need to grasp the substance of grace, and to begin to do so, we need to define it.
    A good place to begin when defining Biblical terms is to look at the word in the original language. The Greek word translated "grace" is charis, meaning: a gift, a benefit or favor. In the New Testament, this word took on special significance as the divine favor bestowed upon us by God when he gives us salvation. Furthermore, this favor is viewed a being undeserved. It has been freely given to us by God with no strings attached, no prerequisites for us to fulfill, and without deeds to be done to win this favor. Mercy is very similar to grace in that it rescues the troubled soul from its desperate situation. But mercy may be shown indifferently. Grace always comes through love, and in particular, God's grace is always joined with his mercy as it flows from his love. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!" (1John 3:1) 
     Although we do not and cannot do anything to merit this favor from God, God works actively to give us grace. It comes into our souls by his power. We do not work to receive grace, but God works to give it to us. Once we receive it, its power is not drained or contained. It becomes the energizing force behind our daily experience of living the Christian life. The Apostle Paul centered his prayer for the believers around this truth: "I pray that out of his glorious riches" (one of which is grace) "he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." (Eph. 3:16, 17) Because Grace only comes from God, we are entirely dependent on him for our salvation. But this does not begin and end with the act of conversion. It is an ongoing action. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." (Eph. 2:8) We are always receiving the gift of salvation, in much the same way as we are always receiving light and heat from the sun, and we cannot live without it.
     The saving grace that Christ gives us causes us to respond in thankfulness. When the church celebrates the grace that was given to us by the broken body and shed blood of Jesus, it is called the Eucharist or Thanksgiving. Receiving it and thereby recalling the story of redemption is a response or "work" of praise. In addition, when God gives us salvation, he gives us other gifts (charisms,) which we are called upon to use in order to be administrators of God's grace to others. We do not, nor can we work to receive grace, but we take grace and its accompanying power to do God's work through the Holy Spirit who works in and through us.
     The point we must always remember about grace is that it does not stop. If we think that we have been saved by grace at such-and-such a point in time, we have stopped. If we merely feel good because of God's grace, we have stopped. If we think that grace is not associated with what we do, we have stopped. Sometimes in our efforts to emphasize that salvation is all of grace (period,) we have forgotten that anything composed of grace is also a living, active dynamo of power, and it must act accordingly.
     Today we are quite intent upon criticizing the idea of legalism -- the idea that that what one does or does not do is vital to how the Christian life is lived out. But in this mode of thinking it is very easy to gravitate to the opposite end of things -- doing nothing, just feeling the feelings. God does not intend for us to work our way to salvation, or to work to maintain or keep our salvation. The price paid for his gift of grace was too great for that. But, once we are saved, we are expected to live a life of active thankfulness, as described in 1Pet. 2:9: "[you] declare the praises of him who called you our of darkness into his wonderful light." And when we begin to do these things, to practice the power of grace, to understand its definition, it will bring about a revolution in Christian living.

some thoughts from:
Easton, Burton Scott, "Grace." from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. by James Orr, Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1939 (online edition)