Does Your Grace Still Matter, God?
Sermon
Holy Email
Cycle A Second Lesson Sermons for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany
E-mail
From: KDM
To: God
Subject: God's Grace
Message: Does your grace still matter, God? Lauds, KDM
Titus 2:11 reads, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all." The Christmas e-mail from KDM to God asks, Does your grace still matter, God? Lauds, KDM. The real query may be, Do we still matter enough to God for grace to happen?
Written in the name of Paul to Titus, Paul's co-worker and trouble shooter, this letter called "Titus" was a manual to church pastors of third and fourth generation Christians. Then, as now, the church was searching for its new identity in its current world. Among the threats to the church and church leaders in Paul's day were heresy, the state, and public opinion.
Now, as then, church leaders and church members are charged to encourage studying anew, recognizing anew, and assigning anew the role of the church in a new time and the new threats of the present age. Taking such responsibility is part of Christmas.
The years 2000 plus will tell us if we still care enough about the church to keep Christ and the church from becoming obsolete. In this time and this place, does God still matter enough to us that we will help open the door for God's grace to come in?
Let us look at Christmas through the eyes of a journalist. The five big questions that journalists ask are WHAT, WHO, WHERE, WHEN, and WHY.
First, WHAT? What is this newsworthy event? Christmas is the event. Christmas is the appearance of God's grace. The list of synonyms for grace runs long. Among the qualities of grace that stand out at Christmas are three. Grace is the compassionate love and protection that God bestows freely upon us. Grace is a favor rendered by one who need not give it. Grace is the good will of God who has plans for us and wishes well for us.
Question two, WHO? Christ is the who of Christmas. Christ is the one whose arrival we have awaited throughout the season of Advent. Christ's birth begins the giving of his life for us. The goals of his giving are to save us from our weaknesses and failings and to help us live better lives.
God also is the who of Christmas. God is the one doing the doing. God made the choice of new creation through the birth of Christ. God is the initiator of any grace that comes our way.
You and I also are the who of Christmas. We are both God's subject and God's object of Christmas. We are the receivers of God's outpouring of grace through our creator's action that is Christmas. We are the ones who, through Christ, will learn the way to live self-controlled, honest, and God-inclusive lives. When we embrace this discipline and responsibility, we become the doers who keep alive the Christian way of being within God's grace.
Question three, WHEN? December 25. No year date, Christmas was. Christmas is. Christmas spans all time. Its truth is timeless and universal. The truth of Christmas comes whenever we are in partnership with compassionate love. Whenever this love wins out in our lives, it is grace. This is Christmas.
Christ comes whenever we are in partnership with hope. Whenever hope tries to displace despair, it is grace. This is Christmas.
Christ comes whenever we are in partnership with peace. When peace tries to prevail, it is grace. This is Christmas.
Christ comes whenever we become partners with what is just. When just ways triumph, it is grace. This is Christmas.
Christ comes whenever our innermost being allows for the possibility of Christmas. Christmas is partly awaiting and partly being. We prepare the way for Christ to come whenever we choose to spend our energy on justice rather than on doing wrong. Whenever, as we wait, we promote love instead of discord, whenever we sound the persistent voice of peace above the racket of combat, and whenever we embrace hope over resignation, we acknowledge that Christmas still matters and that we still matter enough to God for grace to happen.
Now on this day, within these walls, the wait for December 25 is over. On December 25, this year 20__, Christmas is. It also is yet to be.
Next question, WHERE? As with when, the where of Christmas holds no boundary of race, economics, geography, society, sexual designation, lefthandedness, or disability. Christmas is a door-opening, welcoming event.
Christmas finds us whether we live in mansion or tent, in single-bedroom house, cardboard box, or a blanket. Pieces of Christmas surprise us in the hospital room, through Internet discovery, during a street corner conversation, and while waiting in the grocer's express lane.
Christmas flows into a care center for elders on a dull Saturday morning as a 99-year-old woman transports her companion residents to the countryside by reading aloud William Cullen Bryant's poem, "The Prairies": "Still this great solitude is quick with life...."
As Ben Corning drives in the predawn to his school janitorial job, he sees the glow of fire in the house of a family with school children. Without hesitation, he rouses the family sleeping upstairs, encourages them to hold on, then leads them to safety.
When you or I confront pain with hope, we hear the small voice of God's hope saying, "Hold on." God calls us back to life. Christmas pours into our being.
When God saves anyone, God does it without reservation. God's action and energy focus on the one God is saving. God is intent on saving this world, God's continually new, "wherever" creation. Christmas is a wherever event because God is convinced that our world is worthy of being saved.
Question four, WHY? With characteristically beautiful prose, the New English translation of this piece of scripture phrases it this way, "The grace of God has dawned upon the world with healing for all [humankind]; and by it we are disciplined" (2:11).
This is the why of Christmas. When the reality of God's grace finally dawns on us, we find it not a threat of punishment but an instrument of healing. The grace of God has appeared. Somehow, the old-fashioned word, grace, still is not worn out. Grace still amazes, grace the favor rendered by one who need not do so.
The first why of Christmas is healing. God brings healing to the insult of what is broken, hurt, divided, and wounded. Christmas does not stop with the gift of God's grace. It is not a one-day event. Not only does it save us from -- from ourselves, but it saves us for -- for ourselves, for a fuller life, for a wholeness, for a particular way of living that reflects having received the grace of God.
The second purpose of Christmas is its call to us. "It teaches us to have no more to do with Godlessness or the desires of this world but to live, here and now, responsible, honorable, and God-fearing lives" (v. 11, Phillip's Translation).
From: KDM
To: God
Subject: God's Grace
Message: Does your grace still matter, God? Lauds, KDM
Titus 2:11 reads, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all." The Christmas e-mail from KDM to God asks, Does your grace still matter, God? Lauds, KDM. The real query may be, Do we still matter enough to God for grace to happen?
Written in the name of Paul to Titus, Paul's co-worker and trouble shooter, this letter called "Titus" was a manual to church pastors of third and fourth generation Christians. Then, as now, the church was searching for its new identity in its current world. Among the threats to the church and church leaders in Paul's day were heresy, the state, and public opinion.
Now, as then, church leaders and church members are charged to encourage studying anew, recognizing anew, and assigning anew the role of the church in a new time and the new threats of the present age. Taking such responsibility is part of Christmas.
The years 2000 plus will tell us if we still care enough about the church to keep Christ and the church from becoming obsolete. In this time and this place, does God still matter enough to us that we will help open the door for God's grace to come in?
Let us look at Christmas through the eyes of a journalist. The five big questions that journalists ask are WHAT, WHO, WHERE, WHEN, and WHY.
First, WHAT? What is this newsworthy event? Christmas is the event. Christmas is the appearance of God's grace. The list of synonyms for grace runs long. Among the qualities of grace that stand out at Christmas are three. Grace is the compassionate love and protection that God bestows freely upon us. Grace is a favor rendered by one who need not give it. Grace is the good will of God who has plans for us and wishes well for us.
Question two, WHO? Christ is the who of Christmas. Christ is the one whose arrival we have awaited throughout the season of Advent. Christ's birth begins the giving of his life for us. The goals of his giving are to save us from our weaknesses and failings and to help us live better lives.
God also is the who of Christmas. God is the one doing the doing. God made the choice of new creation through the birth of Christ. God is the initiator of any grace that comes our way.
You and I also are the who of Christmas. We are both God's subject and God's object of Christmas. We are the receivers of God's outpouring of grace through our creator's action that is Christmas. We are the ones who, through Christ, will learn the way to live self-controlled, honest, and God-inclusive lives. When we embrace this discipline and responsibility, we become the doers who keep alive the Christian way of being within God's grace.
Question three, WHEN? December 25. No year date, Christmas was. Christmas is. Christmas spans all time. Its truth is timeless and universal. The truth of Christmas comes whenever we are in partnership with compassionate love. Whenever this love wins out in our lives, it is grace. This is Christmas.
Christ comes whenever we are in partnership with hope. Whenever hope tries to displace despair, it is grace. This is Christmas.
Christ comes whenever we are in partnership with peace. When peace tries to prevail, it is grace. This is Christmas.
Christ comes whenever we become partners with what is just. When just ways triumph, it is grace. This is Christmas.
Christ comes whenever our innermost being allows for the possibility of Christmas. Christmas is partly awaiting and partly being. We prepare the way for Christ to come whenever we choose to spend our energy on justice rather than on doing wrong. Whenever, as we wait, we promote love instead of discord, whenever we sound the persistent voice of peace above the racket of combat, and whenever we embrace hope over resignation, we acknowledge that Christmas still matters and that we still matter enough to God for grace to happen.
Now on this day, within these walls, the wait for December 25 is over. On December 25, this year 20__, Christmas is. It also is yet to be.
Next question, WHERE? As with when, the where of Christmas holds no boundary of race, economics, geography, society, sexual designation, lefthandedness, or disability. Christmas is a door-opening, welcoming event.
Christmas finds us whether we live in mansion or tent, in single-bedroom house, cardboard box, or a blanket. Pieces of Christmas surprise us in the hospital room, through Internet discovery, during a street corner conversation, and while waiting in the grocer's express lane.
Christmas flows into a care center for elders on a dull Saturday morning as a 99-year-old woman transports her companion residents to the countryside by reading aloud William Cullen Bryant's poem, "The Prairies": "Still this great solitude is quick with life...."
As Ben Corning drives in the predawn to his school janitorial job, he sees the glow of fire in the house of a family with school children. Without hesitation, he rouses the family sleeping upstairs, encourages them to hold on, then leads them to safety.
When you or I confront pain with hope, we hear the small voice of God's hope saying, "Hold on." God calls us back to life. Christmas pours into our being.
When God saves anyone, God does it without reservation. God's action and energy focus on the one God is saving. God is intent on saving this world, God's continually new, "wherever" creation. Christmas is a wherever event because God is convinced that our world is worthy of being saved.
Question four, WHY? With characteristically beautiful prose, the New English translation of this piece of scripture phrases it this way, "The grace of God has dawned upon the world with healing for all [humankind]; and by it we are disciplined" (2:11).
This is the why of Christmas. When the reality of God's grace finally dawns on us, we find it not a threat of punishment but an instrument of healing. The grace of God has appeared. Somehow, the old-fashioned word, grace, still is not worn out. Grace still amazes, grace the favor rendered by one who need not do so.
The first why of Christmas is healing. God brings healing to the insult of what is broken, hurt, divided, and wounded. Christmas does not stop with the gift of God's grace. It is not a one-day event. Not only does it save us from -- from ourselves, but it saves us for -- for ourselves, for a fuller life, for a wholeness, for a particular way of living that reflects having received the grace of God.
The second purpose of Christmas is its call to us. "It teaches us to have no more to do with Godlessness or the desires of this world but to live, here and now, responsible, honorable, and God-fearing lives" (v. 11, Phillip's Translation).
