What grace is that to you?

      I had one of those weeks where God was preaching a sermon to me, even as I was trying to prepare a sermon for all of us gathered.  It is not much of a surprise around here that there has been a good bit of pastoral conversations around death.  We have had a couple funerals, and I traveled back to my last parish for another tough funeral.  And, yes, for those who ask, my successor succumbed to the cancer a couple weeks ago, so that community is still in mourning.  I spent a good bit of time in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth and was focused a bit on both the agrarian and astronomical illustrations that Paul uses to explain the glory of the next life.

     A few Adventers are disturbed that I do not teach a great deal about the next life, other than to say it will be greater than I or you can ask or imagine.  For my part, I hope it is more like the life after life after death described by N. T. Wright.  How cool would it be to do the things we love truly for the glory of God?  But, if God gives me a new heart and a new mind, I expect I won’t mind sitting in church for eternity—the description of some of my pastors in my youth.

     The agrarian image is great because we are all getting ready for spring planting.  We “plant” bodies in the ground and try to predict what the bodies of the next life will resemble.  Those of you who plant tomatoes or cucumbers or carrots or radishes or corn or whatever in your garden, is there any way you can predict the fruit or vegetable that will come forth from those seeds you plant, absent your knowledge of having learned what each seed looks like?  Does a tomato seed look like it will produce a tomato?  Are you good enough to distinguish the different variety of plants by their very seeds?  No.  Most of us are not.  In a sense, Paul is similarly reminding us that these bodies we plant at the time of death will likely not even point to, or give the barest hint, of the bodies we will inherit in the kingdom of God.

     All Paul knows is that the life in the kingdom of God will be glorious.  What does that mean?  Again, he points to our experiences of glory.  We understand the universe a bit better than the contemporaries of Paul, but we should still get the idea and even understand a few new ones.  The sun, the moon, and the stars are all glorious, though in different ways.  They are predictable and valuable.  And they are unique.  Paul writes in our lesson today that the stars differ from one another in their glory.  He did not know they sang, like our astronomers now do.  He had no concept of the distances between them and us, like we and our astronomers do.  And there is no way he understood the sheer size of those stars, like we do.  Yet, he recognized the fact that the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, fashioned each of them and called them by name, much in the same way that He fashioned each one of us and calls us each by name.

     See?  It was a good sermon I was getting early in the week.  But, while the week went on, I was nudged in a different direction.  I have been doing this long enough to know that feel.  God wanted me preaching to you on the passage of Luke, instead.  To be sure, Paul’s letter will touch individuals who need to see or hear it, but the bulk of us needed to focus on Jesus’ question today.

     Our story from Luke’s Gospel immediately follows Jesus’ teaching on the Beatitudes and Woes.  Jesus has been describing to all those in earshot of behavior that God will bless and of behavior that will cause human beings to experience woes.  Now, he begins the address of those who are really listening, those who have heard His teaching thus far and really want to know and follow God.  Jesus gives some instructions that some of those commentators I read are certain they are hyperbole, that Jesus could not have really meant what He taught here, or that Luke clearly misunderstood the words of Jesus reported to him by the early disciples and Apostles.  They argue there is no way that Jesus expected His followers to be punching bags for their masters.  They argue there is no way Jesus expected His followers to allow themselves to be extorted by the soldiers, let alone go around naked in a society for which that would have been a shameful experience.  And there is certainly no possible way that Jesus expected His followers to give when asked.  They would have run out of things to give long after they did not have enough for themselves.

     The problem with discounting these words as recorded in Luke’s Gospel is that they forget the work and person of Christ Jesus.  When the soldiers come to arrest Jesus under the cover of darkness and Peter leads the fight to keep his Master free, does Jesus instruct Peter to quit chopping off ears and to aim for heads?  When the soldier punches Him for supposed disrespect of the High Priest, does Jesus smite the soldier?  When the soldiers mock Him and pay false homage to Him and punch Him repeatedly as they tease Him to “prophesy who hit You,” does Jesus ever fight back?  Of all the human beings ever to walk the earth, Jesus of Nazareth experienced the greatest of injustices.  Given how we like to lash out at others when we suffer just a little bit, can you truly imagine how you would have faced that which Jesus faced?  I’m certain I would have called down lightning bolts to give them a foretaste of that hellish eternity they would soon be experiencing.  You laugh, but how many of would act like Jesus acts? 

     One of the benefits of being Episcopalian/Anglican is that we have yet another prayer for that protection against such mis-teachings.  We have that lovely Collect we hear once a year where we remind ourselves that Jesus was not just the Savior, but a pattern for holy living.  I see the nods.  You and I are called to live lives like our Master.  God does not want us claiming Him as Lord and then setting out to exhibit characteristics that do not mirror Him, however dimly.  And in that understanding, you and I are not just counter-cultural in our calling, but even counter “western church” cultural.

     What do I mean?  Think of the representations of God in the highlighted church culture.  Make no mistake, there are far more anonymous Christians like ourselves, than there are headline makers and click baiters promoted by the press and social media.  Pick your favorite prosperity gospeller, those who convince followers that their lack of material blessing in this life is evidence of their lack of faith.  Nowhere in their preaching and teaching is there anything about cross-bearing, about redemptive suffering.  Pick your favorite headline grabbing “pastor.”  Colleagues from around the country had to tip me off to whatever the heck is going on on the east side of Nashville in Mt. Juliet or Lebanon, where the pastor kicks out (their version of ex-communication) those who wear masks, burns books, and threatens to shame women in his congregation he is certain are witches.  Or consider your favorite “Christian” leader who has taken it upon himself or herself to raise money to make sure the right politicians get elected to support the right causes.  Their attention to a flock or the build up of Christ’s Body, that is the Church, is mostly absent.  This list can go on and on, and they seem to have a greater impact or imprint because of the coverage they get.  Nobody knows about the church that packs weekend meals for kids’ backpacks.  Nobody knows about the church that plans sit down meals for the homeless in their community.  Nobody knows about the church that offers ESL to immigrants in their community.  Nobody knows about the church that offers mentorships to youth.  Nobody knows about churches who offer mom’s a chance to go to Starbucks or to the store without a baby attached.  Those last examples are not divisive.  Those last examples do not create buzz.  But which examples better reflect the heart and character of God?

     Jesus continues His teaching with a reflective question.  Now, y’all know I am having to pay a bit more attention to my Greek because Joshua was sad he’d not yet learned Greek like his brothers and sisters.  But have no fear, my cross bearing is your cross bearing!  As I was reading the passage for the week in Greek, I stumbled upon an interesting word.  Each time that Jesus asks those listening to Him, which now includes us, what credit is that to you? in our translation, He is really asking His followers and hears to think about grace, and God’s grace in their own life.  What do I mean?

     The Greek word that our translators rendered as credit is actually charis, grace.  The literal question that Jesus is asking us is what grace is that to you?  Now, I am pretty sure most of us have been to Confirmation classes and other catechesis classes over the course of our religious educations and our faith walk with God.  What is grace?  I heard it!  Say it louder!  That’s right!  Giving without expecting anything in return!  How do we often describe the heart of God?  He is full of grace.  God gives and expects what from us in exchange for what He gives us?  Nothing!  Absolutely nothing!  In fact, when Israel argues “But we give the appropriate sacrifices,” how does He answer them?  That their offerings are a stench!  What He really wants are people committed to doing His will and to repenting when they sin.  To put it in the language of the Gospels and Jesus, what can we give God to redeem our souls?  Nothing.  To put it in the language of our worship, what does God demand from us?  A sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.  That’s not exactly a lot of hard work on our part, is it?

     Actually, of course, it is incredibly hard.  We know that God does not expect anything exorbitant in return for our deliverance from sin, but how often do we fall short?  If we only love those who love us, what grace is that to us?  Evil doers love those who love them.  If we only do good for those who do for us, what grace is that to us?  The world is often transactional.  Human beings tend to be nice to those from whom they want something, but dismissive of those whom they think have nothing to offer.   And, boy, that last question really ought to give a spiritual wedgie to those who think capitalism is God’s chosen economic system.  If we lend only to those from whom we expect to be paid back, what grace is that to us?  Each of the examples that Jesus gives are not examples of grace.  Each expects payment of some kind.  And Jesus will teach against this throughout His life and live it in His suffering and death.  Take the seat of least honor, invite those who cannot return an invitation to their own dinner party, don’t pray flowery prayers to make people think you are holy, love your neighbor as yourself.  All these are done to reflect the heart and character of God.  In this season of Epiphany, we remind ourselves that Jesus was the manifestation of God’s grace in the world.  We also remind ourselves that we, too, are called to manifest God’s grace in the world around us.  And so these teachings of Jesus are not hyperbole.  We know because He lived them when we could not!  He reflected the heart and character of God perfectly, and it cost Him His life.  Yet for His faithfulness, what did the Father do?  He raised Jesus and exalted Him and gave Him authority over all things.  Now that work falls to us, being empowered by the Holy Spirit.

     My real struggle in this sermon was the modern application and illustration.  I know most of you want to know how a teaching or understanding is meant to impact you today, in your context.  All that I could think of, the only image popping into my mind when I prayed to God for examples, was our work with those food insecure, those experiencing homelessness, and those with limited resources who need mental health care.  Most of you know I have had two to three dozen questions about our pantry that assure me we are doing the right thing, but convict me how many are misled.  Nancy and Hilary and Sarah and other volunteers have had some version of it, too.  I get asked why we don’t id, why we don’t limit visits, why we don’t only serve a particular zip code, and why we take the pantry on the road.  In the Church, there is a worry that we are being taken advantage of.  If we feed families every week for a year or two or more, they never learn to feed themselves.  If we serve people not in our neighborhood, we will run out because of the demand.  Are we not encouraging people to be lazy by taking the food to them a couple times a month?  When we live and ask those questions, what are we saying about our Father in Heaven and our Lord Christ?  What testimony about them are we giving?  God has limited resources?  God expects us human beings to judge what’s going on in one another’s lives?  That God’s grace is really more like worldly transactions?  What grace is that to you?

     And what does the world see and hear when Christians properly model Christ’s and God’s heart?  How many times have I been told Father, man, if other Christians acted like y’all, I could worship your God, I could get behind the teachings of Jesus.  So distorted is our worship by the world, which is always fighting God, that people are surprised when we act as God commands us.

     Make no mistake, brothers and sisters, this is hard work.  Giving and giving and giving is challenging, especially in a world that always expects something in return.  That is why you and I and all Christians are taught, by virtue of our baptisms, to continue in the fellowship of believers and the prayers.  That is why you and I, as Episcopalians and Anglicans, are called to come to this meal as often as we need it.  Those of you who paid close attention to charis probably wondered if it was related to Eucharist.  It is.  What is the result of God’s grace to us?  Good thanks!  You and I are invited by God to return and return and return to this meal not just to give good thanks to God for what He has done for us in Jesus Christ our Lord, but to be fortified by His Word and His Sacraments, to be sent back out there to do the work He has given each of us to do!  Along the way, we will confess our sins, we will remind ourselves of His promises, and we will drink of His Body and His blood, the One who truly showed each one of us the grace of God, trusting He will give us the nourishment, the strength, the determination, the whatever we truly need, to do His will in the world around us.

     I do find it kind of a cool God-incident that we are reminded to ask ourselves constantly this question posed by Jesus, what grace is that to you, on a day when one of our younger sisters will, for the first time in her young life, eat that bread and drink that wine.  Our Lord constantly reminds us to come to Him as trusting children, and so we are reminded a bit more intently of the eyes and wonder we should all have when we come to this, His Table.  With childlike faith we are called to remember the grace that has been extended to us, that we might be those heralds of grace that he desires us to be, trusting that our Father will use us to His redemptive purposes and, one glorious day, raise us to share in His Son’s glory for all eternity!

 

In Christ’s Peace,

Brian†