Amazing Grace
Sermon
Ashes To Ascension
Second Lesson Sermons For Lent/Easter
Keith Miller, a well-known author and Episcopal churchman, arrived in Bloomington, Illinois, for a speaking engagement. He got to town the night before he was to speak so he bought a local newspaper to catch up on the local news. Close to Bloomington were two towns: Oblong and Normal. To his surprise the headlines on the society page read: "Oblong Man Marries Normal Woman." He thought that was hilarious. In the pulpit the next morning he told the congregation what he had read in the society section of the newspaper the night before. No one laughed. No one even made a snicker. They had grown so accustomed and familiar to those phrases and words that they didn't appear as humorous to the local people.
Grace Is A Key Word
It is easy to allow words and phrases to lose their meaning. We become so accustomed to them they no longer seem significant. This is always possible for words and phrases we use over and over again. This is the danger we face in our constant use of both the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer, the possibility of reducing them to mere words and phrases. Our faith would be impoverished if we lost the meaning of some key words. The word grace is one of the key words in our biblical and theological vocabulary. It is an important word because it helps us to understand our relationship with God and with one another. Notice how critical and significant it is in our text: "For by grace you have been saved through faith ..." Philip Yancey said that he keeps circling back to the word grace because it is one grand theological word that has not been spoiled. He calls it the "the last best word" because every English usage that he finds contains something of the original meaning. "Like a vast aquifer, the word underlies our proud civilization, reminding us that good things come not from our own efforts, rather by the grace of God" (Philip Yancey, What Is So Amazing About Grace?, p. 12).
Grace is not a salvation by works. But a salvation by works and deeds is simple and clear and easy to grasp. This is how we deal with one another. Individuals earn our respect and love. It is not something that we freely give. We do not respond positively to people we do not know. As we are accustomed to having people prove themselves to us before we are willing to accept them, some feel this is also true in our relationship with God. As we prove ourselves to God, then God will like us and care for us. Because of our ignorance regarding grace, there is that prevailing attitude among us that we must earn God's favor. Thus, a salvation by works and deeds is easier for us to grasp and understand, since this is basically how we deal with one another in our human relationships.
Sometime ago I talked with a church member who left no doubt in my mind that he considered himself better than many and superior to most. As a socially prominent person he saw his success and fortune as the favor of God. As our conversation continued I was disheartened by his derogatory comments regarding the poor and less fortunate people in the community. He didn't have the slightest understanding of the meaning of grace. I was reminded of Archibald MacLeish's comments before the graduating class at McGill University: "Never think too much of money and position, for someday you will meet a person for whom this means nothing. Then you will realize how poor you really are." In Christ, we have met such a person.
A Grace-Filled Life
A person who thinks that he or she has earned a good grade before God, even a passing grade, has never encountered the God of the Bible. They have not yet seen the Lord high and lifted up. They have not yet recognized themselves for what they are -- sinners in need of the grace of God. If you are the recipient of grace then the magnitude of this experience is too overwhelming; it causes you to realize that you have received what you did not merit and could never have possibly earned. When such amazing grace is experienced and affirmed, then humility and generosity are the results. Smugness, arrogance, and superiority are not the characteristics of a grace-filled life. How is it that Saint Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, or Bishop Tutu could have such little regard for themselves and give so much of themselves to other people and their needs? They seem to say with the hymn writer, "What a debt to grace I owe."
There is a deep-rooted conviction that is held by many that one has to earn and work for one's passage into the kingdom of God. The case is made by declaring: "Lord, I am a decent sort of person. I have done my best to fulfill my religious duties. At least I am better than most. I don't get roaring drunk, beat my wife, or abuse my children. My pledge to the church isn't much, but at least I pay it. I mind my own business, and I don't get involved in other people's lives or in the needs of others because religion is a private affair. Lord, I think that this should provide some special attention on my account." I am certain that God has heard that prayer often. The apostle's reply in our text is, "You've got it all wrong -- for by grace are you saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."
Grace is not based on merit, need, or appeal. This is true, however, of our relationships with one another. "I'll do for you if you do for me." "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine." Many of our relations are based on merit. Michael Jordan is one of the highest-paid professional athletes in the world. He has demanded millions from the Chicago Bulls basketball team. The Bulls through the years have met his financial demands. Do the Bulls pay him well because they have a particular fondness for him? No. They pay him millions because he can put the ball in the hoop and win championships for the Bulls. This relationship between Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls is based on merit.
Many of our relationships are based on need. I keep on good terms with my automobile mechanic, especially since I drive an older truck with well over 100,000 miles on it. It has been said that there are two ways to lose your life's savings: go to the race track or take your car into the garage for repairs. If you have a good mechanic who is honest, dependable, and reasonable you have a rare find. I need my mechanic because he can fix my carburetor and do it right the first time. Our relationship is based on need.
Other relationships are based on appeal. A man does not love a woman because she can fix carburetors or slam dunk basketballs, but because he finds her charming, attractive, and appealing. This is the kind of person with whom he wants to spend the rest of his life. Take away the merit, need, and appeal and these relationships would dissolve. The relationship between God and ourselves is unlike these relationships, because it is based on grace. God does not enter into personal relationships with us because God needs us -- God doesn't -- nor because we are good -- we are not. Our relationship with God is not based on the fact that we offer anything to God, but on the fact that God offers everything to us.
Grace Through Faith
Therefore, grace is the unmerited, unearned, undeserved goodness of God offered to us in Jesus Christ. For by grace -- you have been saved -- through faith -- these nine mono-syllables have a special cadence, movement, and rhythm resonating over and over again from the first century until the present. Do you sense the lyrical movement of these words and what they meant to the apostle Paul who penned them? Every time the Church discovers these words, they produce revival, reformation, and transformation. The idea of grace disappeared from the Church until Augustine brought it back in the fifth century, and it was rediscovered by Luther in the sixteenth century and again by Wesley in the eighteenth century. Every time the Church got off track, the words of the text, the rediscovery of God's grace in Jesus Christ got the Church back on track. H. Richard Niebuhr reminds us that "the great Christian revolutions come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there." Today we need to rediscover grace as the unmerited, unearned, undeserved love of God offered to us in Jesus Christ and once again allow grace to do its radical work among us in both our hearts and society.
Never has there been a time, on such a wide scale, that men and women have been more baffled, dismayed, despondent, and discouraged by the demise of the human person. Never has the world experienced on such a wide scale the sheer irrationality of the evil things humans can do to each other. We are about to close the most violent century in our history. Many of us have lived through these darkest moments in human experience -- the Holocaust and World War II. We now know what Luther meant when he said in his great hymn, "Though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us." We have seen the "dark side" of life. We confront it every day in the newspaper and on television. The apostle reminds us that "by grace" we can recover our destiny. Even in a demonic world men and women may choose to "live by grace through faith." Luther did say, "Though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us," but he went on to say, "We will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us."
Grace is what God brings to us at the point of our deepest need. God does not deal with us according to what we deserve, but according to what we need. That's grace! Grace is the way God offers himself to us. Through grace God comes to us on the level of our need, where we are, and looks into our eyes. God does not ask us to clean ourselves up or straighten ourselves out before coming. That is the very thing we cannot do and that is why we so desperately need grace. God asks us, "Where does it hurt and how can I help?" He comes to us at the level of our need. That is what's so amazing about grace!
Grace Through Christ
Barclay, in his autobiography, said that the most important passage in the entire Bible for him is John 1:14, "The word became flesh and lived among us ... full of grace and truth." He went on to say that the evidence of God's grace was seen in Christ who took the entire weight of human sorrow, anguish, and sin upon himself as expressed in the concise statement of our ancient creed: "crucified, dead, and buried." Luther, in the second verse of his mighty hymn, reminds us:
Were not the right man on our side,
The man of God's own choosing,
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he ...
And he must win the battle.
The gap between ourselves and God has been spanned, not by pushing out the frail bridge of our own good works, but by God who crosses the gap to meet us in Jesus Christ.
Why wasn't Jacob cast by God on the scrap heap for his warped and twisted ways? Why wasn't David disowned by God for his immoral and degrading deeds against Uriah and his wife? Why wasn't Peter left to sink because of his base denial of Christ? Why wasn't Saul of Tarsus, persecutor, blasphemer, and hater of Christ, blotted out from the book of life forever? Why does God allow this dismal, despairing world to blow itself to pieces to the delight of some of our neo-apocalyptic preachers of doom? Why is it that God has not given up on you and me who reject his love and pollute his earth? Why? I'll tell you why. Because there is nothing on earth so dogged, determined, stubborn, and persistent as the grace of God who seeks to save. This grace is unmerited, unearned, undeserved. At times it is surprising, even astonishing, but it is always an amazing grace!
Grace Is A Key Word
It is easy to allow words and phrases to lose their meaning. We become so accustomed to them they no longer seem significant. This is always possible for words and phrases we use over and over again. This is the danger we face in our constant use of both the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer, the possibility of reducing them to mere words and phrases. Our faith would be impoverished if we lost the meaning of some key words. The word grace is one of the key words in our biblical and theological vocabulary. It is an important word because it helps us to understand our relationship with God and with one another. Notice how critical and significant it is in our text: "For by grace you have been saved through faith ..." Philip Yancey said that he keeps circling back to the word grace because it is one grand theological word that has not been spoiled. He calls it the "the last best word" because every English usage that he finds contains something of the original meaning. "Like a vast aquifer, the word underlies our proud civilization, reminding us that good things come not from our own efforts, rather by the grace of God" (Philip Yancey, What Is So Amazing About Grace?, p. 12).
Grace is not a salvation by works. But a salvation by works and deeds is simple and clear and easy to grasp. This is how we deal with one another. Individuals earn our respect and love. It is not something that we freely give. We do not respond positively to people we do not know. As we are accustomed to having people prove themselves to us before we are willing to accept them, some feel this is also true in our relationship with God. As we prove ourselves to God, then God will like us and care for us. Because of our ignorance regarding grace, there is that prevailing attitude among us that we must earn God's favor. Thus, a salvation by works and deeds is easier for us to grasp and understand, since this is basically how we deal with one another in our human relationships.
Sometime ago I talked with a church member who left no doubt in my mind that he considered himself better than many and superior to most. As a socially prominent person he saw his success and fortune as the favor of God. As our conversation continued I was disheartened by his derogatory comments regarding the poor and less fortunate people in the community. He didn't have the slightest understanding of the meaning of grace. I was reminded of Archibald MacLeish's comments before the graduating class at McGill University: "Never think too much of money and position, for someday you will meet a person for whom this means nothing. Then you will realize how poor you really are." In Christ, we have met such a person.
A Grace-Filled Life
A person who thinks that he or she has earned a good grade before God, even a passing grade, has never encountered the God of the Bible. They have not yet seen the Lord high and lifted up. They have not yet recognized themselves for what they are -- sinners in need of the grace of God. If you are the recipient of grace then the magnitude of this experience is too overwhelming; it causes you to realize that you have received what you did not merit and could never have possibly earned. When such amazing grace is experienced and affirmed, then humility and generosity are the results. Smugness, arrogance, and superiority are not the characteristics of a grace-filled life. How is it that Saint Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, or Bishop Tutu could have such little regard for themselves and give so much of themselves to other people and their needs? They seem to say with the hymn writer, "What a debt to grace I owe."
There is a deep-rooted conviction that is held by many that one has to earn and work for one's passage into the kingdom of God. The case is made by declaring: "Lord, I am a decent sort of person. I have done my best to fulfill my religious duties. At least I am better than most. I don't get roaring drunk, beat my wife, or abuse my children. My pledge to the church isn't much, but at least I pay it. I mind my own business, and I don't get involved in other people's lives or in the needs of others because religion is a private affair. Lord, I think that this should provide some special attention on my account." I am certain that God has heard that prayer often. The apostle's reply in our text is, "You've got it all wrong -- for by grace are you saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."
Grace is not based on merit, need, or appeal. This is true, however, of our relationships with one another. "I'll do for you if you do for me." "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine." Many of our relations are based on merit. Michael Jordan is one of the highest-paid professional athletes in the world. He has demanded millions from the Chicago Bulls basketball team. The Bulls through the years have met his financial demands. Do the Bulls pay him well because they have a particular fondness for him? No. They pay him millions because he can put the ball in the hoop and win championships for the Bulls. This relationship between Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls is based on merit.
Many of our relationships are based on need. I keep on good terms with my automobile mechanic, especially since I drive an older truck with well over 100,000 miles on it. It has been said that there are two ways to lose your life's savings: go to the race track or take your car into the garage for repairs. If you have a good mechanic who is honest, dependable, and reasonable you have a rare find. I need my mechanic because he can fix my carburetor and do it right the first time. Our relationship is based on need.
Other relationships are based on appeal. A man does not love a woman because she can fix carburetors or slam dunk basketballs, but because he finds her charming, attractive, and appealing. This is the kind of person with whom he wants to spend the rest of his life. Take away the merit, need, and appeal and these relationships would dissolve. The relationship between God and ourselves is unlike these relationships, because it is based on grace. God does not enter into personal relationships with us because God needs us -- God doesn't -- nor because we are good -- we are not. Our relationship with God is not based on the fact that we offer anything to God, but on the fact that God offers everything to us.
Grace Through Faith
Therefore, grace is the unmerited, unearned, undeserved goodness of God offered to us in Jesus Christ. For by grace -- you have been saved -- through faith -- these nine mono-syllables have a special cadence, movement, and rhythm resonating over and over again from the first century until the present. Do you sense the lyrical movement of these words and what they meant to the apostle Paul who penned them? Every time the Church discovers these words, they produce revival, reformation, and transformation. The idea of grace disappeared from the Church until Augustine brought it back in the fifth century, and it was rediscovered by Luther in the sixteenth century and again by Wesley in the eighteenth century. Every time the Church got off track, the words of the text, the rediscovery of God's grace in Jesus Christ got the Church back on track. H. Richard Niebuhr reminds us that "the great Christian revolutions come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there." Today we need to rediscover grace as the unmerited, unearned, undeserved love of God offered to us in Jesus Christ and once again allow grace to do its radical work among us in both our hearts and society.
Never has there been a time, on such a wide scale, that men and women have been more baffled, dismayed, despondent, and discouraged by the demise of the human person. Never has the world experienced on such a wide scale the sheer irrationality of the evil things humans can do to each other. We are about to close the most violent century in our history. Many of us have lived through these darkest moments in human experience -- the Holocaust and World War II. We now know what Luther meant when he said in his great hymn, "Though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us." We have seen the "dark side" of life. We confront it every day in the newspaper and on television. The apostle reminds us that "by grace" we can recover our destiny. Even in a demonic world men and women may choose to "live by grace through faith." Luther did say, "Though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us," but he went on to say, "We will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us."
Grace is what God brings to us at the point of our deepest need. God does not deal with us according to what we deserve, but according to what we need. That's grace! Grace is the way God offers himself to us. Through grace God comes to us on the level of our need, where we are, and looks into our eyes. God does not ask us to clean ourselves up or straighten ourselves out before coming. That is the very thing we cannot do and that is why we so desperately need grace. God asks us, "Where does it hurt and how can I help?" He comes to us at the level of our need. That is what's so amazing about grace!
Grace Through Christ
Barclay, in his autobiography, said that the most important passage in the entire Bible for him is John 1:14, "The word became flesh and lived among us ... full of grace and truth." He went on to say that the evidence of God's grace was seen in Christ who took the entire weight of human sorrow, anguish, and sin upon himself as expressed in the concise statement of our ancient creed: "crucified, dead, and buried." Luther, in the second verse of his mighty hymn, reminds us:
Were not the right man on our side,
The man of God's own choosing,
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he ...
And he must win the battle.
The gap between ourselves and God has been spanned, not by pushing out the frail bridge of our own good works, but by God who crosses the gap to meet us in Jesus Christ.
Why wasn't Jacob cast by God on the scrap heap for his warped and twisted ways? Why wasn't David disowned by God for his immoral and degrading deeds against Uriah and his wife? Why wasn't Peter left to sink because of his base denial of Christ? Why wasn't Saul of Tarsus, persecutor, blasphemer, and hater of Christ, blotted out from the book of life forever? Why does God allow this dismal, despairing world to blow itself to pieces to the delight of some of our neo-apocalyptic preachers of doom? Why is it that God has not given up on you and me who reject his love and pollute his earth? Why? I'll tell you why. Because there is nothing on earth so dogged, determined, stubborn, and persistent as the grace of God who seeks to save. This grace is unmerited, unearned, undeserved. At times it is surprising, even astonishing, but it is always an amazing grace!
